About a month before their sentencing, former Deutsche Bank traders James Vorley and Cedric Chanu, convicted of spoofing, are about to get additional information from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

This becomes clear from new documents filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) with the Illinois Northern District Court.

According to the documents, seen by FX News Group, the DOJ has completed its review in a related case and produced to the defendants in that case approximately 123 documents from the CFTC (spanning 330 pages). Many of these documents reflect notes taken by CFTC attorneys of joint meetings with Department of Justice attorneys and counsel for Deutsche Bank, which employed Mr Vorley and Mr Chanu.

The DOJ has already produced its side of these notes to Mr Vorley and Mr Chanu in pre-trial discovery, but the United States did not have (and thus did not produce) the CFTC’s notes from these meetings until recently. Although the CFTC’s notes appear to be cumulative, the DOJ intends to produce them to Mr Vorley and Mr Chanu. The United States’ anticipated production to Mr Vorley and Mr Chanu also includes certain other documents received from the CFTC.

Let’s recall that, in September 2020, Vorley and Chanu were convicted of three counts and seven counts, respectively, of wire fraud affecting a financial institution. The traders allegedly engaged in a scheme to defraud other traders on the Commodity Exchange Inc., which was run by the CME Group. The defendants defrauded other traders by placing fraudulent orders that they did not intend to execute in order to create the appearance of false supply and demand and to induce other traders to trade at prices, quantities, and times that they otherwise would not have traded.

Vorley and Chanu pushed for acquittal. Their main argument is that the government’s opposition “fails to address most of the context of trading on an anonymous electronic exchange, which allows for all kinds of conduct that could be characterized as “deceptive.”

In March 2021, however, the Honorable John J. Tharp, Jr. denied the traders’ motions for acquittal or a new trial.

The sentencing hearing will be held on Monday, June 21, 2021 at 10:00 a.m.