MF Global’s Bankruptcy Nears a Happy Conclusion [DealBook]
When Mahesh Desai checked his MF Global account 15 months ago, his $580,000 nest egg was gone. Like thousands of investors and farmers who had their savings with MF Global, Mr. Desai lost his money in the brokerage firm’s chaotic final days. Regulators discovered that $1.6 billion was trapped in a web of improper wire transfers, a stunning breach that sent federal investigators scrambling to build a case. On Thursday, a bankruptcy court will review a proposal that would return 93 percent of the missing money to customers like Mr. Desai. And the trustee who has submitted the proposal, James W. Giddens, has quietly identified a way that, if sent to the judge and approved, could plug the remaining shortfall for customers in the United States, according to people involved in the case.
Tax Girl: "The Internal Revenue Service has already delayed the filing season by a little over a week: the season was supposed to kick off on January 22, 2013, but due to the fiscal cliff deal, it was pushed out to January 30, 2013. That means, as of today, the IRS will begin accepting e-filed returns and processing the old fashioned paper ones."
The U.S. Federal Reserve is getting behind a push to move internal auditors away from reporting to the chief financial officer or general counsel, in an effort to boost their ability to operate objectively.
Cats killing billions of animals in the US [BBC]
Cats are one of the top threats to US wildlife, killing billions of animals each year, a study suggests. The authors estimate they are responsible for the deaths of between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds and 6.9-20.7 billion mammals annually. Writing in Nature Communications, the scientists said stray and feral cats were the worst offenders. However, they added that pet cats also played a role and that owners should do more to reduce their impact. The authors concluded that more animals are dying at the claws of cats in the United States than in road accidents, collisions with buildings or poisonings.
