Corzine was CEO of Goldman before Hank Paulson came in as CEO.

Corzine also put on trades similar to this while he was at Goldman - in 1994, Goldman was still a partnership (ie, not a public-traded corporation) and Corzine put on a trade on US interest rates that  started to bleed profusely. Corzine held onto the position for far longer than he should have and cost the partners some serious coin. In other words, what we're seeing at MF isn't Corzine's first time at holding onto the wrong side of a trade for far longer than he should have.