Former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine will not answer questions from a congressional committee seeking to get to the bottom of the brokerage firm’s collapse, The Post has learned.
Corzine, who has been subpoenaed to testify before the House Agriculture Committee tomorrow, is expected to plead the Fifth Amendment in response to most hard-hitting questions, sources said.
That means the one person who may know the whereabouts of the $1.2 billion in missing customer cash will not be giving up much.
One source close the committee said while he might provide a limited statement, Corzine — the former New Jersey Governor and CEO of Goldman Sachs — was not expected to “say anything of substance” during the hearing.
Speculation has been building for a week as to whether Corzine would invoke his constitutional protection against self-incrimination ahead of the first of three scheduled Capitol Hill grillings.
A spokesman for Corzine declined to comment. Tamara Hinton, spokeswoman for the House committee, referred to his level of participation as “speculation.”
Corzine has hired high-powered white-collar criminal defense lawyer Andrew Levander to represent him.
Sources said that Levander likely told him that there was little upside to giving his version of events and that it could put him in legal jeopardy.
An army of regulators is investigating the circumstances of MF’s collapse on Oct. 31 and the disappearance of some $1.2 billion in client money.
“When you testify in these types of situations there’s very little you can do to help yourself, but there’s a hell of lot you can do to hurt yourself,” said veteran white collar legal eagle Bill Singer.
Corzine is also scheduled to appear before the Senate Agriculture Committee on Dec. 13, followed two days later by testifying before the House Committee on Financial Services.