Ex-JPMorgan Traders Convicted in Federal Fraud Trial

A federal jury in Chicago convicted two former traders of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s precious metals desk who had been charged with manipulating gold prices, finding they used misleading orders to rig prices.

The convictions are the capstone of a seven-year Justice Department campaign to punish a style of deceptive trading in futures markets known as spoofing. The rapid-fire strategy was prevalent at some Wall Street banks before Congress outlawed spoofing in 2010, and persisted even after its prohibition, according to prosecutors. JPMorgan paid $920 million in 2020 to settle regulatory and criminal charges against the bank over the traders’ conduct.