With farmers across the country still reeling from the collapse of MF Global, and the disappearance of more than $1.5 billion of customers’ money, several prominent Senators have urged Louis Freeh, the officials overseeing MF’s bankruptcy, to prevent bonuses from being distributed to MF executives.

MF Global’s October collapse came as a shock to many farmers who had invested in the brokerage’s futures market. Even more of a shock was the news that the company had misappropriated nearly $1.6 billion of customers’ money, mixing customer funds and using them for MF’s accounts only days before declaring bankruptcy. The missing money has yet to be founds and many farmers are not optimistic that it will be returned.

In a pattern that has become all too familiar in light of the United States’ recent economic woes, the executives at MF, despite entangling their company in bad European debt deals that eventually brought them down and despite losing over a billion dollars in customer money, stand to receive enormous bonuses. According to media reports, Louis Freeh has petitioned the courts to allow payment on these bonuses.

In light of these rumors, Senators Debbie Stabenow and Pat Roberts, along with the entire membership of the Senate Agriculture Committee, have written a latter to Freeh urging him to reject paying out MF bonuses. The letter categorically condemns the bonuses, stating, “it is absolutely outrageous to propose paying bonuses to the very people who were responsible for the firm’s operational, legal, and financial management at the time customer money disappeared,” and, “Thousands of MF Global customers still have not received their missing money. Giving bonus checks to the very people who lost that money is offensive on its face.”

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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer