In 2020, JP Morgan Chase admitted that it scammed precious metals investors of billions of dollars by rigging the markets for more than ten years. To avoid prosecution, the company agreed to pay almost $1 billion in fines for schemes related to defrauding precious metals futures exchanges and US Treasuries.
Rumors and speculation have circulated the internet for many years. Now, proof of these allegations is finally starting to surface. Most mainstream media has been distracted by other political events to avoid reporting on the significance of criminal acts, which have caused many of our current economic problems.
Stories like this have been censored mainly by mainstream media as both the government and JP Morgan executives continue using their PR teams to suppress the truth to keep from tarnishing the surface of their reputation.
Federal investigators in Connecticut reported that a significant portion of all precious metal trading options was involved in an elaborate scheme to rig prices for profit.
A multi-faceted search on LinkedIn shows that dozens of individuals held positions within the precious metals trading units at JP Morgan Chase in recent years.
Although little information is publicly available, the magnitude of the fine alone should be a warning sign to many investors that something is significantly wrong with the organization’s moral direction.
In a follow-up to the case involving the record nearly billion-dollar fine, a judge has ordered that four executives within the JP Morgan Chase precious metals trading operating groups face criminal prosecution for their actions in a separate but related price spoofing case.
“For over eight years, traders on JP Morgan’s precious metals and U.S. Treasuries desks engaged in separate schemes to defraud other market participants that involved thousands of instances of unlawful trading meant to enhance profits and avoid losses,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
In a press release from the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney John H. Durham of the District of Connecticut said, “JPMorgan engaged in two separate years-long market manipulation schemes.”
The Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office said that for nearly 10 years, many JP Morgan Chase employees involved in the sales and trading of precious metals openly broke US laws. A LinkedIn search shows that at least 60 people held job titles related to precious metals trading at JP Morgan Chase in recent years.
In the price spoofing case, prosecutors allege that former global precious metals desk head Michael Nowak, traders Gregg Smith and Christopher Jordan, and salesperson Jeffrey Ruffo manipulated the prices of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium between 2008 and 2016.
Christian Trunz, a former precious metals trader from JP Morgan’s London branch, has already pleaded guilty in NY and is a key witness for the prosecution under a plea deal released by prosecutors.
Trunz admitted to conspiring with traders at other banks on the opposite side of the market to influence and manipulate the spot price of futures contracts for precious metals.
As part of the agreement, Trunz admitted that he placed thousands of fraudulent orders on futures contracts for silver, gold, platinum, and palladium, intending to manipulate spot prices for over nine years.
Trunz was an executive director of JP Morgan’s precious metals trading operations. He admitted to prosecutors that he was taught how to spoof trades and defraud investors by more senior traders and other top executives within the firm.
More importantly, Trunz admitted that his bosses and other senior executives openly knew and consented to the illegal trades. Trunz is reportedly working with prosecutors as part of a plea deal. Court records from Trunz’s case have revealed that multiple traders were involved in the spoofing scheme with contracts openly traded on both NYMEX and COMEX futures exchanges.
The alleged volume of fraudulent activity was so rampant that the guilty plea only provided a few specific examples of illegal trades in exchange for cooperation.
Several other small firms that were involved in oversight of trading activity on behalf of regulators have also been cited for their involvement in the conspiracy.In a separate but seemingly related case, the government has claimed that precious metals traders employed by Deutsche Bank exposed the bank to increased risks, including the risk of an investigation because of their involvement in the scheme with traders from other banks.
In that case, at least two Deutsche Bank traders were convicted on 10 counts of wire fraud for their involvement in the conspiracy to rig spot prices.
In sentencing proceedings against Navinder Sarao, the DOJ concluded that Sarao was one of the conspirators that led to the 2010 Flash Crash of the stock market, which caused American investors to lose more than a trillion dollars in wealth. Sarao’s deal with the government avoids jail as long as there is continued cooperation with prosecutors.
Another trader in the Deutsche case, Jiongsheng Zhao, spent only 10 months incarcerated while awaiting extradition from Australia. Zhao’s agreement with the government recommends he serve no additional jail time for cooperating and providing information about the conspiracy to prosecutors.
Untold billions of dollars have potentially been stolen from both the stock market and precious metals investors due to deliberate manipulation of precious metals prices by employees of JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank. It is still unclear whether employees from both firms openly conspired together to rig spot prices or if the cases are entirely separate.
Hopefully, some additional details begin to emerge as the Furthermore, the penalties paid thus far by JP Morgan and other firms pale in comparison to the trillions of dollars that the Biden Administration funneled into JP Morgan and other banks during the repo loan crisis bailout during 2020 and 2021.
Prosecutors have stated that the investigation is continuing which leaves open the possibility that more people may be charged and prosecuted for their crimes in addition to the current prosecutions under way.
Little information has been reported about the scheme and details from the investigation are likely to remain scant until prosecutions are further along.
JP Morgan Chase is also one of the largest custodians of precious metals for many of the world’s governments, banks, and other institutions.
Numerous top executives from JP Morgan and other firms are still facing prosecution for helping JP Morgan profit from the conspiracy.
Largely because of their public relations teams, significant stories like this get lost among all the other noise in the news but can have a very serious impact on investors in the long term.
Much of this information has been reported by the Justice Department and FBI through press releases as widespread fraud that involved two separate illegal schemes at JP Morgan to manipulate precious metals prices and defraud investors. Stories like this continue to been censored and under reported by mainstream media even though they impact millions of American investors.