Committee issues third subpoena for Corzine

A third Congressional panel has unanimously agreed to subpoena Jon Corzine to testify about the bankruptcy of MF Global.

On Wednesday, the investigations subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee voted 15-0 to legally compel Corzine to appear and testify at a Dec. 15 hearing on the bankruptcy.

{mosads}“Mr. Corzine’s appearance before the Subcommittee is necessary to help identify the causes of MF Global’s collapse and what happened to its customers’ funds,” said Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), who chairs the panel.

The former New Jersey governor and Democratic senator is very much in demand on Capitol Hill these days, as lawmakers search for answers to how the financial firm he ran ended up as the eight largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, as well as how up to $1.2 billion in customer funds have gone missing in the fallout. Regulators are currently searching for the funds, amid concerns that they may have been improperly used to help keep the company afloat in its final days, after it was weighed down by extensive bets on European debt.

Lawmakers are also asking tough questions about what signs regulators may have overlooked that could warned about the firm’s troubles before its abrupt collapse.

Corzine resigned from the firm shortly after it went bankrupt, and has refrained from public appearances or comments since then. However, that will change Thursday, as he makes his first of three scheduled appearances, this time before the House Agriculture Committee. He is subpoena’d to appear before the Senate Agriculture Committee on Dec. 13.

While lawmakers will grill Corzine on the collapse, it is a distinct possibility he will invoke the Fifth Amendment to several, if not all of the questions, given the ongoing investigations by federal authorities into the bankruptcy.