A federal judge delayed until next week the sentencing of two former JPMorgan Chase & Co. gold traders convicted last year of spoofing, fraud and attempted market manipulation, so he can review issues raised by defense lawyers hoping to keep their clients out of prison.
(Bloomberg) — A federal judge delayed until next week the sentencing of two former JPMorgan Chase & Co. gold traders convicted last year of spoofing, fraud and attempted market manipulation, so he can review issues raised by defense lawyers hoping to keep their clients out of prison.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of five years behind bars for Michael Nowak, who ran JPMorgan’s precious-metals trading desk, and six years for Gregg Smith, the bank’s top gold trader.Â
But during a nearly three-hour hearing Thursday in Chicago federal court, attorneys argued over how to measure, in dollars, the harm to victims of deceptive trading by Nowak and Smith.Â
US District Judge Edmond Chang, who presided at their trial in August 2022, said he needed at least until next week to review the arguments and the law. New sentencing dates weren’t set, but the judge said the soonest would be next Wednesday.
The JPMorgan case was part of a crackdown by federal prosecutors on illegal spoofing, where traders place bogus orders to move prices up or down and then quickly cancel them before they can be executed. Smith and Nowak used the technique to manipulate gold and silver prices from 2008 to 2016.
Read More: JPMorgan Gold Traders Found Guilty After Long Spoofing TrialÂ
The case is US v. Smith et al, 19-cr-00669, US District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).
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