Well, things certainly are getting interesting:

Federal regulators have discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in customer money has gone missing from MF Global in recent days, prompting an investigation into the brokerage firm, which is run by Jon S. Corzine, the former New Jersey governor, several people briefed on the matter said on Monday. …

Regulators are examining whether MF Global diverted some customer funds to support its own trades as the firm teetered on the brink of collapse. [emphasis added]

The discovery that money could not be located might simply reflect sloppy internal controls at MF Global. It is still unclear where the money went. At first, as much as $950 million was believed to be missing, but as the firm sorted through its bankruptcy, that figure fell to less than $700 million by late Monday, the people briefed on the matter said. (B. Protess, M. De La Merced, S. Craig, DealBook, New York Times)

“Hey BillyBob, where did I leave that $700 Million? Dangitall, I can’t find it!”

Zerohedge suggests something far more sinister is afoot, that the customer money was in fact paid out to counterparties as collateral in an effort to keep MF in the game; if this is the case, the money is gone gone gone, and the customers are screwed screwed screwed:

Say you are the head back office guy at MF Global, it is the close of trading on Thursday, the firm has already completely drawn down on its revolver [credit line], and all the resulting cash in addition to all the firm’s cash at your disposal in affiliated bank accounts, up to and including petty cash, has been used to satisfy margin demands due to declining collateral value, yet the collateral calls just won’t stop, and impatient voices on the other side of the phone line demand you transfer even more cash over immediately or else risk default proceedings commenced against you within minutes. What do you do? Do you go ahead and tell your superior that the firm is broke even though the co-opted media is trumpeting every 5 minutes that “MF Global is fine”, knowing full well you will be immediately fired for being the bearer of bad news, or do you assume that courtesy of your uber-boss being the former head of the Vampire Squid [Goldman Sachs], and thanks to infinite moral hazard which after Lehman made sure nobody would ever fail ever again, that there is simply no way that you will be left without some miraculous rescue, if only you can last one more day, and as a result proceed to “commingle” some client funds with the firm’s cash. It turns out that at MF Global you do the latter… over and over… until you have literally stolen hundreds of millions from the firm’s client accounts in hopes that the miracle rescue will come on Friday… then over the weekend… and then you realize no miracle is coming, partly because your actions have been exposed, partly because miracles only exist in fairy tales. The next thing you know, your firm is bankrupt and hundreds of clients are about to learn that all their money is gone. Poof. This is not a fictional tale. This is precisely what very likely happened at MF Global in the past 72 hours. And someone has to go to jail. That someone, if indeed this criminal act is proven to have taken place, should be none other than Jon Corzine himself.

Now, this author knows perfectly well that no Goldmanite will ever see the inside of a jail cell. But, with Eric Holder on the flaming hot seat because of Fast and Furious, and with OWS occupying the streets in protest of bankster-funded crony capitalism, and with Obummer’s reelection chances looking worse than my chances of winning Lotto, well, somebody’s going down for this, and it’ll be damned interesting to see who it turns out to be.

In the spirit of Jerome Kerviel (Soc Gen) and Kweki Adoboli (UBS), I am betting that some poor schlub will find himself in “rogue trader” land real soon.

Jon Corzine, not so much.

Why do you care? Do you have any money in a brokerage account or retirement account, IRA, 401(k), or public pension fund anywhere? If you do, that money could be just as exposed as the MFGlobal clients’ was.

Is the money still there? HOW DO YOU KNOW? You get these wonderful paper statements, right? You can login online and look at your account balance, can’t you? They wouldn’t lie, would they? That would be illegal, right? That’s real money and not just a bunch of electronic hoooey, right? And everyone knows, the laws are applied equally to everyone, and the regulators are there to make sure everything’s on the up-and-up…right? The courts would certainly never allow anyone to rob you so obviously, would they? You’d be made whole, right?

Right?

And if it turns out that this, coupled with the ongoing EU meltdown, turns out to be the new Lehman Brothers, and everything is going kaflewy right in front of our eyes, I’ll still have my money, won’t I?

Or not.

But wait, there’s more! Jon Corzine may have a $12 Million golden parachute! Woo Hoo!

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP. Do you understand yet how completely owned we are? Do you understand that we are living in a criminal conspiracy and that we are the marks?