Former JPMorgan traders Gregg Smith, Michael Nowak, Christopher Jordan, and Jeffrey Ruffo suffered a bitter blow on June 1, 2022, as the Court has axed their motion to dismiss the second superseding indictment in a spoofing case.

This prosecution arises out of an alleged commodities-spoofing conspiracy committed by the precious-metals traders. The Second Superseding Indictment charges a conspiracy to commit racketeering activity, as well as substantive counts of fraud, spoofing, and attempted price manipulation.

The traders have moved to dismiss the charges. However, the Judge noted that, the defendants essentially raise the same arguments that were presented in the earlier dismissal motion targeting the First Superseding Indictment.

On June 1, 2022, the Honorable Edmond E. Chang of the Illinois Northern District Court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss.

The Judge noted that the defendants have essentially reasserted the same arguments as those advanced in the prior motion to dismiss. In both dismissal motions, the defense argues that open-market orders with a genuine risk of execution cannot form the premise of a scheme to defraud and, relatedly, market orders like that are neither qualifying false statements nor material omissions.

Likewise, the traders raise once again the argument that the attempted price manipulation charges are duplicitous and time barred. These issues were addressed in the prior opinion. The Court adopted its prior reasoning to again reject the arguments.

As FX News Group has reported, the defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The case will now proceed to trial.