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Including an operator who ran JPMorgan's precious metals global office was accused Monday of manipulating the precious metals futures market, the Justice Department said.
The indictment, which was unveiled in federal court in Illinois, alleges that traders were involved in a racketeering plot that, according to prosecutors, lasted eight years and involved thousands of transactions.
Michael Nowak, 45, from Montclair, New Jersey, who ran the Global Precious Metals Office, Gregg Smith, a 55-year-old JPMorgan dealer living in Scarsdale, and Christopher Jordan, 47, from Mountainside, New Jersey, have left JPMorgan in 2009.
Prosecutors allege that men worked with co-conspirators to engage in market manipulation, frauds and widespread theft by placing bids without any plan to fill them and impact the market.
They are accused of harming JPMorgan's customers and others in the market, prosecutors said.
"Today 's announcement involves alleged manipulations of the futures prices of gold, silver, platinum and palladium, by executives and traders, in one of the country's leading financial institutions, "Attorney General Brian Benczkowski told reporters on Monday.
"These precious metals are widely used for investment and industrial purposes and are key benchmarks for the US economy."
"In thousands of transactions, they placed orders that they had not intended to execute in order to create cash and lower prices for orders that they wanted to run on the other side of the market, "he added.
Benczkowski said the Justice Department had several witnesses, including other JPMorgan employees, and had used data analysis to identify suspicious trading patterns.
JPMorgan refused to comment on the charges.
The three men were waiting for their appearance Monday afternoon in New York and New Jersey.
A Nowak lawyer said his client had done nothing wrong.
"We look forward to representing him at the trial and hope that he will be fully exonerated," said his lawyers, David Meister, and Jocelyn Strauber in a statement.
The names of Smith and Jordan's lawyers are not immediately available.
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Kiley Armstrong, associate editor at The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
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