Jon Corzine, a former U.S. Senator and governor from New Jersey, has been sued for his role in the failure of brokerage firm MF Global Holdings, the eighth largest bankruptcy in history.

The trustee overseeing MF Global's bankruptcy, former FBI chief Louis Freeh, filed the papers against Corzine and two other top MF Global executives late Monday in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan.

The other two executives named in the suit are former chief operating officer Bradley I. Abelow and former chief financial officer Henri J. Steenkamp, both close Corzine allies.

The suit alleges that Corzine, who served as CEO of MF Global until the firm collapsed in October 2011, and his fellow defendants "dramatically changed" the business model of the company, shifting it away from a commodities brokerage into a full-blown investment bank.

The suit says Corzine and the others did so with little regard to the risks inherent to such a move.

The executives, in particular Corzine, in their haste to build a world-class investment bank, ignored "systemic weaknesses" in MF Global's operations that eventually led to the firm's bankruptcy, according to the suit.

According to the complaint, which seeks an unspecified amount in damages, MF Global lost more than a billion dollars in value between Corzine's arrival at the firm and the start of bankruptcy.

Freeh said in the suit that Corzine, Abelow and Steenkamp breached their fiduciary duties, accusing the trio of being ultimately responsible for MF Global's downfall. Their actions "culminated in the business collapse of the company and the bankruptcies of the debtors."