The trustee charged with unwinding failed the brokerage firm MF Global has found 'suspicious' trades from customer accounts days before the firm went under.

Responding to a question from the judge in the official bankruptcy proceedings, a lawyer for the trustee said that the investigation into the last days of MF Global showed suspicious transfers from customer accounts. The lawyer, James B. Kobak, declined to provide additional details about the transfers given their relevance to a number of ongoing investigations.

Kobak also reaffirmed the previous estimates by the trustee of the total amount of missing client funds, The Wall Street Journal reported:

"We cannot say that the deficit is necessarily any less than $1.2 billion," said the lawyer, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP's James B. Kobak Jr.



Mr. Kobak added that the exact shortfall won't be known until all customer claims are filed and sorted out. He said the trustee's office is "not in a position to decide whether criminal activity" was involved.



Mr. Kobak told Judge Martin Glenn of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan that a third transfer of customer accounts to third parties, which was approved on Friday, would mean that about 72% of the money in customer accounts will be available to them soon. The trustee will hold back about $1 billion as it continues its investigation, Mr. Kobak said, adding that the office would wait a while before determining whether to transfer more.