The U.S. Department of Justice charged one former and two current JPMorgan Chase & Co. employees with manipulating the markets for precious metals futures contracts.
Gregg Smith and Michael Nowak are with JPMorgan, which the DOJ referred to in a release as Bank A, while the third defendant, Christopher Jordan, left the bank in 2009. Reuters previously reported JPMorgan suspended Smith and Nowak while the DOJ investigated the allegations.
The DOJ alleged the defendants engaged in spoofing, market manipulation and fraud while they worked on JPMorgan's precious metals trading desk. The complaint accuses them of placing orders on gold, silver, platinum and palladium futures contracts with the intent of canceling them before execution, thus misleading market participants about the various metals' supply and demand.
The complaint also names former JPMorgan traders John Edmonds and Christian Trunz as co-conspirators. Edmonds in October 2018 pleaded guilty to charges related to manipulating precious metals futures contracts. Trunz pleaded guilty to spoofing charges in August.
