Under the DPA, JPMorgan and its subsidiaries agreed to pay more than $920 million in penalties, disgorgements, and victim compensation. A portion of that amount particularly the civil monetary penalty will be paid to the CFTC.
Based on the admissions and court documents, a number of JPMorgan traders allegedly engaged in a fraudulent scheme related to the purchase and sale of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium futures contracts for eight years from March 2008 to August 2016. The traders on its precious metals desk allegedly practiced trading intended to deliberately trigger or defend barrier options held by JPMorgan to prevent losses.
Two JPMorgan traders on its precious metals desk already pleaded guilty to the charges filed against them by the Justice Department.
On October 9, 2018, John Edmonds pleaded guilty to one count of commodities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, commodities fraud, commodities price manipulation, and spoofing.
On August 20, 2019, Christian Trunz pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to engage in spoofing and one count of spoofing in connection with his precious metals futures contracts trading at JPMorgan and other financial services firms.
