A former Wall Street trader has been convicted of fraud in connection with a precious metals spoofing scheme in Illinois.
Christopher Jordan, 51, of Mountainside, New Jersey, was convicted of wire fraud affecting a financial institution by a federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Jordan was an executive director and trader on JPMorgan’s precious metals desk in New York from 2006 to 2009, and on Credit Suisse’s precious metals desk in New York in 2010.
Between 2008 and 2010, Jordan placed thousands of spoof orders, i.e., orders that he intended to cancel before execution, to drive prices in a direction more favorable to orders he intended to execute on the opposite side of the market.
Jordan engaged in this deceptive spoofing strategy while trading gold and silver futures contracts on the Commodity Exchange (COMEX), which is a commodities exchange operated by the CME Group. These deceptive orders were intended to inject false and misleading information about the genuine supply and demand for gold and silver futures contracts into the markets.
Jordan was convicted of wire fraud affecting a financial institution. He is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date and faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
This conviction marks the latest in a series of cases related to precious metals spoofing. In August 2022, Gregg Smith and Michael Nowak were convicted after trial in the Northern District of Illinois of wire fraud affecting a financial institution, commodities fraud, attempted price manipulation, and spoofing. In October 2018, John Edmonds pleaded guilty in the District of Connecticut to one count of commodities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, commodities fraud, price manipulation, and spoofing. In August 2019, Christian Trunz pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of New York to one count of conspiracy to engage in spoofing and one count of spoofing.
JPMorgan admitted to committing wire fraud in connection with unlawful trading in the markets for precious metals futures contracts and in the secondary (cash) market for U.S. Treasury notes and bonds. JPMorgan entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement pursuant to which it paid more than $920 million in criminal monetary penalties, criminal disgorgement, and victim compensation.
The FBI New York Field Office investigated the case. Trial Attorneys Matthew Sullivan, Lucy Jennings, and Christopher Fenton of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.
Individuals who believe that they may be a victim in this case should visit the Fraud Section’s Victim Witness website at https://www.justice.gov/criminal-vns/case/jpmorgan-chase-co-deferred-prosecution-agreement for more information.
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Key Facts
- State: Illinois
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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