PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP v. Giddens ex rel. SIPA Liquidation of MF Global Inc. (In re MF Global Inc.)

505 B.R. 623
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedFebruary 20, 2014
DocketNos. 11-2790 (MG) SIPA, 13 Civ. 8893 (VM)
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 505 B.R. 623 (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP v. Giddens ex rel. SIPA Liquidation of MF Global Inc. (In re MF Global Inc.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP v. Giddens ex rel. SIPA Liquidation of MF Global Inc. (In re MF Global Inc.), 505 B.R. 623 (S.D.N.Y. 2014).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

VICTOR MARRERO, District Judge.

On October 2, 2013, James W. Giddens, as Trustee for the liquidation of MF Global Inc. (the “Trustee”), filed the Trustee’s Motion to (I) Approve the Trustee’s Allocation of Property and (II) Approve the Terms of an Advance of General Estate Property for the Purpose of Making a Final 100% Distribution to Former Commodity Futures Customers of MF Global Inc. (the “Trustee’s Motion”) with Judge Martin Glenn of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Bankruptcy Court”). The appellants in this matter, Bradley Abelow, Jon Corzine, David Dunne, Laurie Ferber, Vinay Mahajan, Edith O’Brien, Christine Serwinski, Henri Steenkamp (collectively, the “Individual Appellants”), and Pricewat-erhouseCoopers LLC (“PwC”) (collectively, “Appellants”), filed limited objections to the Trustee’s Motion.

At a November 5, 2013 hearing, the Bankruptcy Court rejected Appellants’ arguments. By Order dated November 6, 2013 (the “Bankruptcy Court’s Order”), the Bankruptcy Court granted the Trustee’s Motion in all respects. On December 16, 2013, PwC filed a notice of appeal from the Bankruptcy Court’s Order; on December 18, 2013, the Individual Appellants filed a separate notice of appeal from the same Order. The Court consolidated both appeals under this docket. (Dkt. No. 29.)

[626]*626I. BACKGROUND1

This case arises out of the liquidation of MF Global Inc. (“MFGI”), a wholly owned subsidiary of MF Global Holdings Ltd. (“MF Global”).2 As part of that liquidation, the Trustee has marshaled assets to use in repaying MFGI’s creditors, including its customers and MF Global, its sole shareholder. At issue here are assets from three separate sources: the Trustee’s settlement with the CME Group Inc. (the “CME Settlement Assets”), the Trustee’s settlement with JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. (the “JPMC Settlement Assets”), and excess assets that remained after the Trustee had fully satisfied claims of MFGI’s securities customers (the “Securities Excess”).

In the Trustee’s Motion, the Trustee proposed to advance the CME Settlement Assets, the JPMC Settlement Assets, and the Securities Excess (collectively, the “Estate Assets”) from MFGI’s general estate (the “general estate”) to MFGI’s customer estates (the “customer estates”).3 The Trustee was obligated to seek permission to advance the Estate Assets to the customer estates by virtue of his consensual settlement with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), which this Court approved on November 8, 2013. (Dkt. No. 571 in Deangelis v. Corzine et al., No. 11 Civ. 7866 (S.D.N.Y.).) The Trustee’s Motion also involved agreements with the named representatives of a putative customer class of MFGI customers (the “Customers”), who have filed a complaint against Appellants (the “Customer Action”) (Dkt. No. 382 in Deangelis v. Corzine et al., No. 11 Civ. 7866 (S.D.N.Y.)), and with MF Global, which serves as plan administrator in the separate liquidation of MF Global and its subsidiaries (the “Plan Administrator”).

The Trustee’s Motion sought to implement the agreement among the Trustee, the CFTC, the Customers, and the Plan Administrator as follows. First, the Trustee asked the Bankruptcy Court to find, based on evidence that the Trustee presented, that there was a shortfall of at least $560 million in the customer estates. To cover that shortfall, the Trustee would advance the Estate Assets from the general estate to the customer estates. The Trustee would then distribute those assets to the class represented by the Customers, such that all customers would receive 100% of their claims against MFGI. In exchange for this distribution, the Trustee would assume the Customers’ claims in the Customer Action by assignment and sub-[627]*627rogation. The Customers’ counsel would continue to pursue the claims in the Customer Action, but all recovery in that proceeding would (after payment of reasonable attorney’s fees) become part of the general estate for the Trustee to distribute to MFGI’s remaining creditors. Finally, the Plan Administrator, as representative of MFGI’s largest creditor, would not object to the advance of the Estate Assets, but only because the Trustee (through the Customers’ counsel) would continue, in the Customer Action, to pursue damages that could be used to pay MF Global and MFGI’s other general creditors.

This carefully crafted agreement satisfied everyone except for PwC and the Individual Appellants, who each filed a limited objection to the Trustee’s Motion. They claimed standing to object because, in their view, the Trustee’s Motion affected their defenses in the Customer Action. Appellants argued that the Estate Assets belonged to the customer estates, not the general estate, and thus the Trustee was wrong to describe the distribution to the customer estates as an advance from the general estate. Appellants also disputed the factual basis for the finding of a shortfall in the customer estates. Finally, they claimed that the assignment and subrogation of the Customers’ claims to the Trustee was invalid. The Trustee, the Customers, the Plan Administrator, and the CFTC all opposed Appellants’ objections.

The Bankruptcy Court held a hearing on November 5, 2013. (See Tr. of 11/5/2013 Hearing re: Trustee’s Mot., Dkt. No. 7231 in In the matter of: MF Global Inc., No. 11-2790-mg (Bankr.S.D.N.Y.) (“Tr.”).) At the conclusion of that hearing, the Bankruptcy Court ruled that Appellants lacked standing to object to the Trustee’s Motion; that the Estate Assets were property of the general estate; that there was a shortfall of at least $560 million in the customer estates; and that the Trustee could validly assume the Customers’ claims in the Customer Action through assignment and sub-rogation. (Tr. at 74-89.) Appellants now appeal the Bankruptcy Court’s ruling. The Trustee, the Customers, the Plan Administrator, and the CFTC4 oppose the appeal.

II. LEGAL STANDARD

A district court has jurisdiction to review an appeal from a final order of a bankruptcy court under 28 U.S.C. § 158(a). The district court reviews questions of law de novo. Flake v. Alper Holdings USA, Inc. (In re Alper Holdings USA, Inc.), 398 B.R. 736, 747 (S.D.N.Y.2008); see also Babitt v. Vebeliunas (In re Vebeliunas), 332 F.3d 85, 90 (2d Cir.2003). A bankruptcy court’s findings of fact are reviewed only for clear error. Babitt, 332 F.3d at 90; Flake, 398 B.R. at 747; see also Fed. R. Bankr.P. 8013 (“Findings of fact, whether based on oral or documentary evidence, shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous.... ”). The bankruptcy court’s discovery rulings “are reversed only upon a clear showing of an abuse of discretion.” DG Creditor Corp. v. Dabah (In re DG Acquisition Corp.), 151 F.3d 75, 79 (2d Cir.1998) (internal quotation mark omitted).

III. DISCUSSION

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Bluebook (online)
505 B.R. 623, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pricewaterhousecoopers-llp-v-giddens-ex-rel-sipa-liquidation-of-mf-global-nysd-2014.