James Koutoulas walked into one of the worst bankruptcies in U.S. history with almost zero legal experience.
"When I got up the first day in bankruptcy court and saw the look on the judge's face, I couldn't blame him," he says. "Bankruptcy court is a rich man's club where everyone is old, so I stood out. Honestly, when I'm shaved, I look like I'm about 12."
Yet Koutoulas, 30, may be one of the only former customers of MF Global, the now-defunct futures brokerage house, with the gumption to publicly object to the way they are being treated. Since filing for bankruptcy Oct. 31, MF Global's woes have rapidly piled up – chief among them losing an estimated $1 billion-plus of customer funds. The loss directly crimped the wallets of some of the futures market's most active participants, from small-time farmers to ranchers to hedge funds.
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