Jon Corzine, chief executive of collapsed securities firm MF Global Holdings Ltd. hired leading white-collar defense lawyer Andrew Levander to represent him, a legal source briefed on the matter said on Thursday night.
U.S. regulators are conducting a broad review of MF Global business practices as they try to track down more than $600 million of missing customer money. MF Global filed for Chapter 11 protection after its bets on European sovereign debt scared away clients, counterparties and investors.
Corzine, a former New Jersey state governor and Goldman Sachs CEO, and three other MF Global executives were sued Thursday by a shareholder over the futures brokerage's collapse, leading to an October 31 bankruptcy filing.
The legal source would only confirm the retention of Levander by Corzine but declined to provide further details.
The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported Corzine's hiring of Levander earlier.
Levander has built up years of experience on high-profile Wall Street cases. He represented outside directors of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain and hedge-fund manager and philanthropist Ezra Merkin, who was sued over money he lost in the Ponzi scheme run by Bernard Madoff.
Corzine has another lawyer, Schuyler G. Carroll, who will represent him in the bankruptcy case, according to court filings on Thursday. Carroll declined to comment.
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