[ by Melanie Gretchen ] Former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine claimed his ability to defend himself would be compromised if the MF Global trustee James Giddens collaborates with customers suing him over the commodities brokerage's demise.  Corzine, along with other current and former MF executives, filed an objection in court earlier this week against James Giddens' attempt to assign his legal claims to plaintiffs in existing cases. Corzine and his former colleagues are defendants in multiple lawsuits accusing them of mismanaging the firm and playing a role in its October 2011 collapse.  Others being sued include former CFO Henri Steenkamp, COO Bradley Abelow, General Counsel Laurie Ferber, and others. For his part, Mr. Giddens is responsible for recovering as much money as possible for those customers, including through litigation.  He attributes commodity trader customers' estimated $1.6 billion shortfall to the firm's misuse of customer money in a frantic attempt to keep it afloat. If Corzine's objection is denied and Mr. Giddens is successful in joining the customer cases, he would gain:

• the right to limit the information and documents available to the executives through discovery
• the right to dictate which documents the executives would turn over to plaintiffs, lawyers for Corzine and the other executives wrote
• any proceeds from the litigation would be sent to the broker-dealer's estate and distributed by Giddens to customers

"Nothing in the Bankruptcy Code authorizes such limitations on the objectors' rights and defenses or an enlargement of the trustee's rights." -- Lawyers for Corzine and the other executives, in documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

In addition to objection by Corzine, Mr. Giddens also faces criticism by trustee Louis Freeh, who is liquidating MF Global's parent entity.  They are counterparts as they represent the interests of different sets of creditors, having long battled over entitlement to various pots of money. For his part, Mr. Freeh is trying to pay back creditors of MF Global's parent, like lender JPMorgan Chase & Co.  His objections, detailed in court papers earlier this week, include the fact that some of Mr. Giddens' claims against the defendants would benefit MF Global's general estate, not its customers, and should therefore be filed by Mr. Freeh. Going forward, bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn will consider Mr. Giddens' plan, and the objections to it, at a 9/5/12 hearing. The Cases

• The bankruptcy: In re MF Global Holdings Ltd, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-15059.
• The liquidation of MF Global's broker-dealer unit" In re MF Global Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-2790.

For further details, go to [Reuters, 8/30/12].