Those checks are part of $61.4 million already approved for payment by the Securities Investors Protection Corporation, the federally chartered agency that oversees the liquidation of brokerage firms.
Chris Dodd, the Banking Committee chairman, assigned them to work together on the section of the bill having to do with the liquidation of troubled firms — making sure that there would never be another taxpayer bailout.
Since MF Global's collapse, Ms. O'Brien has been working for the trustee overseeing the liquidation of the firm's brokerage unit, helping lawyers and accountants understand the firm's operations.
The court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of failed firm's brokerage unit has asked that claims proceedings be set up for brokerage customers, securities account customers and general creditors of the brokerage unit.
That mission is at odds with the interests of Louis J. Freeh, the trustee overseeing the liquidation of the firm, who is seeking to recover money for MF Global's creditors.
Timothy F. Geithner, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, called a 6 p.m. meeting so that bank officials could review their financial exposures to Lehman Brothers and work out contingency plans over the possibility that the government would need to orchestrate an orderly liquidation of the firm on Monday, according to people briefed on the meeting.
The SEC says it is working with Lehman to ensure that customers will not be adversely affected by a liquidation of the firm.
Prosecutors and those associated with the liquidation of the firm are leaving no stone uncovered, investors were assured Friday, but the criminal investigation needs to proceed before many of the assets held personally by Madoff can be pursued.
With the value of the thinly traded stock under pressure, many banks would likely call the loans of Moore & Schley on Monday and force an en masse liquidation of the firm's stock.
Comments by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke earlier in the week, urging Congress to come up with new ways they can assist in the orderly liquidation of major brokerage firms, can't have helped the firm either.
The corporation has presided over the liquidation of 282 brokerage firms.
