A former trader for the brokerage MF Global (NASDAQOTH: MFGLQ) has pleaded guilty to 2008 commodities trading violations that resulted in a loss exceeding $141 million, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced in a news release Tuesday.
The trader, Evan Brent Dooley, 44, of Olive Branch, Miss., was an "associated person" in the company's Memphis branch, according to authorities. He admitted to executing large-scale, unauthorized trades on wheat futures contracts over the Chicago Board of Trade commodities exchange in February 2008.
News of the trading loss resulted in a steep decline in MF Global's share price and triggered an internal crisis at the company. It filed for bankruptcy in October 2011, a collapse that was precipitated by a $6.3 billion bet on European sovereign debt.
Dooley remains free on bond. He is scheduled to be sentenced in District Court in March. Dooley faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine, as
well as an agreed order of restitution.
