whiteyg, It took about 9 months for me to recover from CMC the...

whiteyg,

It took about 9 months for me to recover from CMC the money I made shorting SGW. It went into administration in August '04 and CMC paid-up in late June '05. It was a hefty sum and they required 100% margin on the position over that time which meant whether you were short or long, you had to fund your account to cover your open position to 100%. Additionally I had ION short when it folded, so lots of money tied up with CMC and not working for me.

They paid everyone short eventually. In the end, all they required was a statement issued by the administrators saying the shareholders would recover nothing in wind up. The letters were issued by SGW and ION administrators just prior to the end of June 2005, to allow shareholders to claim their tax losses in that ending financial year.

I had the papers drawn up to sue CMC for the money when the letters where released to market.

Lesson is, if you short a company in dire straits through CMC , you may hit the jackpot, but will not be paid for many many months; most likely when the administrators are prepared to say the fully-paid equity holders will get nothing, or alternatively so many cents in the dollar.