Jon-Bubba twist: MF Global hired Clinton’s group

By JOSH MARGOLIN

Last Updated: 3:07 AM, December 6, 2011

Posted: 1:32 AM, December 6, 2011

Even as Jon Corzine’s MF Global was collapsing, a firm that includes former President Bill Clinton in a senior post was raking in huge fees for public-relations and financial advice from the ill-fated brokerage, The Post has learned.
Clinton’s office insists the former president did not profit from the relationship between MF Global and Teneo Holdings, where he is chairman of the advisory board. But Teneo, on whose advisory board former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also sits, was paid $125,000 a month for at least five months in one of MF’s biggest consulting arrangements, according to sources at the brokerage house.

Ron Sachs /CNP

FRIEND$ AT THE TOP: Former President Bill Clinton and British ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair both sit on the advisory board of Teneo Holdings, which was paid at least $625,000 to do public-relations and financial-consulting work for Jon Corzine’s failed brokerage, MF Global.

 

The relationship was controversial within MF Global even before the company’s financial problems hit the news as executives questioned why an outside firm was needed for work that had long been done in-house.
“I don’t know what they did,” one MF source said. “It was always unclear.”
Another MF employee told The Post that Teneo originally wanted $200,000 a month for its work, but that was too steep a price for MF decision-makers.
Teneo served as a personal p.r. firm and political consultant for then-MF Global CEO Corzine, the former governor and senator from New Jersey. It also offered advice on European financial investments — like the ones that ultimately led to MF’s collapse in October.
“It was very controversial and other consultants we had work for us for years were upset,” said an MF source.
MF is now bankrupt and is the subject of investigations by federal prosecutors and regulators.
Corzine himself has been subpoenaed to testify this week before the House Agriculture Committee, one of several congressional committees examining the company’s failure — the biggest bankruptcy since the Lehman Brothers crash.
Corzine and MF Global declined comment about the Teneo deal, as did Teneo execs.
Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna said “President Clinton does not advise clients on the firm’s behalf.” Clinton does make money from Teneo, but has declined to disclose the sum.
Corzine and the former president have been close for years. Clinton campaigned for Corzine repeatedly and Corzine, in turn, became the first sitting governor to endorse Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the presidency when she ran in 2008.
But Corzine’s ties to Teneo are not so much the result of his relationship with Clinton as with one of Teneo’s top executives, Tom Shea, sources said.
Shea was Corzine’s chief-of-staff both in the Senate and the governor’s office.
jmargolin@nypost.com