Corzine obviously really didn’t see it coming.
The most recent issue of Vanity Fair on the disgraced former CEO of MF Global has revealed that Corzine, along with wife Sharon Elghanayan had attended a party in Paris just two weeks before MF Global filed for bankruptcy and told guests about their intentions to buy a chateau on the French Riviera, according to the New York Post.
Another guest at the party said such a piece of real estate would cost at least a couple million, before renovation and maintenance fees.
Those plans were probably put on hold when MF Global filed for the 8th largest bankruptcy in American history Oct. 31. Corzine has been the central figure blamed for the bankruptcy, as it was his $6.3 billion bet on European sovereign debt that initially caused investors lose confidence in the firm and for the company’s stock to plummet. The fallout from the bankruptcy is still on-going, as the investigation for the $1.2 billion shortfall in segregated customer funds continue and MF Global customers still struggle to claw their money back from their frozen accounts.
Corzine had only been the CEO of MF Global for a year and a half before the firm collapsed. But he initially made his riches when he was head of Goldman Sachs in the 90s—he left right before the investment bank went public and made over $400 million in its IPO. He used some of the money in successful campaigns for New Jersey senator and governor, where he ran as a Democrat.
It is unclear what estate the Corzines planned to buy, though Elghanayan clarified that it wasn’t in Cap Ferrat—one of the most popular vacation spots along the French coast that’s seen the likes of U.S. Presidents and European royalty.
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- Home Builders And Some Big Hedge Funds Are Winning After Today’s Positive Pending Home Sales Data
- The Best Of Andrew Ross Sorkin’s End Of 2011 Column
- While MF Global Was Crashing, JP Morgan Was Holding On To Its Cash
