An ex JPMorgan Chase metals trader has pleaded guilty for market manipulation, the judicial case could involve other employees at the bank.
John Edmonds, 36, confessed to being guilty of commodities fraud and spoofing conspiracy, according to criminal data revealed in Connecticut on Monday. Spoofing is placing orders and then canceling rapidly to manipulate the market.
Edmonds stated that he learned the technique from “more senior traders at the bank” and utilized the technique “hundreds of times with the knowledge and consent of his supervisors”, as indicated by the court documents.
He also expressed that he worked with other employees at the New York bank where he attempted to manipulate gold, silver, palladium and platinum futures contracts exchanged on CME.
JPMorgan, which has for some time been one of the world’s biggest bullion dealers, isn’t named in the court reports. The fraud happened somewhere in the range of 2009 and 2015 when Mr. Edmonds says on his LinkedIn page that he worked for the bank.
JPMorgan did not comment about the issue.
This case is one of the many cases that authorities are catching in efforts to fight those abusive practices in trading. Department of justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission discovered many fraud cases of this nature the past year.
Brian Benczkowski, the head of the criminal division in the justice department said in a statement Tuesday:
“The criminal division is committed to prosecuting those who undermine the investing public’s trust in the integrity of our commodities markets through spoofing or any other illegal conduct,”
This year in January, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission hit with civil fines many financial institutions like Deutsche Bank, UBS, and HSBC for spoofing in precious metals markets.
According to Mr. Edmonds Linkedin profile, he worked for Jp Morgan form 2009 – 2017, initially as an analyst and then as vice president. Between 2009-2015 he developed the e-trading platform at his trading desk according to his profile, and he joined TD Bank this year in January.
Meanwhile, we see many Banks, especially JP Morgan CEO attacking constantly bitcoin, the same banks did not comment when fraud is found inside their institutions, like the recent scandal of Money Laundering at Nordea Bank which banned their employees from bitcoin.