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Securities and Commodities Fraud

The MIMF Unit specializes in the investigation and prosecution of cases involving publicly traded securities. These cases include accounting fraud at publicly traded companies, insider trading, false statements, market manipulation, and other schemes. The Unit also has devoted particular attention to cases involving officers of publicly traded companies who deceived investors in connection with the COVID-19 crisis. For example, prosecutors in the Unit secured the conviction of the president of a Silicon Valley-based medical technology company for participating in a scheme to mislead investors, commit health care fraud, and pay illegal kickbacks in connection with the submission of over $77 million in fraudulent claims for COVID-19 and allergy testing.

The Unit also is the national leader in prosecuting fraud and manipulation in the U.S. commodities markets, including spoofing, insider trading, and benchmark price manipulation.

Prosecutors in the Unit use data analysis and traditional law enforcement techniques to identify and prosecute complex fraud, manipulation, spoofing, and insider trading cases involving commodities and securities markets. Prosecutors have developed unique algorithms to comb market-wide trade data for patterns indicative of manipulative trading practices, and frequently work in parallel with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In connection with an ongoing market manipulation probe, the Fraud Section has convicted 12 commodities and securities traders at global financial institutions, including a Managing Director and six Executive Directors who were convicted after jury trials. Since 2019, as part of the same probe, the Fraud Section entered into landmark corporate resolutions relating to violations of the commodities and securities laws—including with JPMorgan Chase, The Bank of Nova Scotia, Merrill Lynch Commodities, Deutsche Bank AG, Tower Research Capital, Propex Derivatives, and NatWest Markets—with a combined total monetary amount of over $1.1 billion.

Separately, the Unit convicted a former oil trader in connection with a scheme to manipulate fuel oil prices in the Port of Los Angeles, one of the nation’s busiest commercial ports. In a related case, the trader’s employer, Glencore Ltd.—one of the world’s largest commodities mining and trading companies—pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to manipulate benchmark prices and agreed to pay $485 million in criminal fines and forfeiture.

NatWest

U.S. v. NatWest Markets Plc: Docket No. 3:21-cr-187-OAW

Roadrunner Transportation Systems, Inc.

U.S. v. Peter Armbruster: Docket No. 2:18-cr-00130-LA-NJ-3

Decision Diagnostics

U.S. v. Keith Berman: Docket No. 1:20-cr-278

Arrayit

U.S. v. Mark Schena: Docket No. 5:20-CR-00425

Celadon

U.S. v. Celadon Group Inc.: Docket No. 1:19-cr-0141-JRS-DML

Mitchell Stein

U.S. v Mitchell Stein : Court Docket Number: 9:11-cr-80205

Sea World

U.S. v. Paul Powers : Docket No. 6:19-cr-00057-CEM-LRH-1

Bankrate Inc.

U.S. v. Hyunjin Lerner: Docket No. 1:17-cr-20235-KMM-1

U.S. v. Edward J. DiMaria: Docket No. 1:17-CR-20898- MGC-1

U.S. v. Bankrate Inc.: Docket No. N\A

ArthroCare

U.S. v. ArthroCare: Docket No. 1:14-cr-00015-SS-1

U.S. v. Michael Baker: Docket No. 1:13-cr-00346-SS-1

U.S. v. Michael Gluk: Docket No. 1:13-cr-00346-SS-2

U.S. v. John Raffle: Docket No. 1-:12-CR-00314-SS-1

U.S. v. David Applegate: Docket No. 1:12-CR-00314-SS-2

Poseidon Concepts

U.S. v. Joseph Kostelecky: Docket No. 1:17-cr-00015-DLH-1

TierOne

U.S. v. Don A. Langford: Docket No. 4:14-cr-03103-JMG-CRZ-1

U.S. v. Gilbert Lundstrom: Docket No. 4:14-cr-03136-JMG-CRZ-1

U.S. v. James Laphen: Docket No. 4:14-cr-03133-JMG-CRZ-1

Deutsche Bank AG

U.S. v. James Vorley and Cedric Chanu: Docket No. 1:18-cr-00035

U.S. v. David Liew: Docket No. 1:17-cr-00001-1

U.S. v. Deutsche Bank AG: Docket No. 20-00584

Merrill Lynch Commodities

U.S. v. Merrill Lynch Commodities

U.S. v. Edward Bases: Docket No. 1:18-cr-00048-1

The Bank of Nova Scotia

U.S. v. Corey Flaum : Docket No. 1:2019-CR-00338-BMC

U.S. v. The Bank of Nova Scotia: Docket No. 20-707 (MAS)

JPMorgan Chase

U.S. v. John Edmonds : Docket No. 3:18-cr-00239-RNC-1

U.S. v. Christian Trunz : Docket No. 1:2019-CR-00375-SJ

U.S. v. Gregg Smith, Michael Nowak, Christopher Jordan, and Jeffrey Ruffo: Docket No. 19-CR-669

U.S. v. JPMorgan Chase: Docket No. 3:20-cr-00175 - RNC

Tower Research Capital LLC

U.S. v. Tower Research Capital LLC: Docket No. 4:19-cr-00819

U.S. v. Yuchun “Bruce” Mao: Docket No. 4:18-cr-00606-1

U.S. v. Kamaldeep Gandhi: Docket No. 4:18-cr-00609-1

U.S. v. Krishna Mohan: Docket No. 4:18-cr-00610-1

Propex Derivatives

U.S. v. Propex Derivatives Pty Ltd.: Docket No. 1:20-cr-00039-1

U.S. v. Jiongsheng "Jim" Zhao: Docket No. 1:18-cr-00024-1

Navinder Singh Sarao

U.S. v. Navinder Singh Sarao: Docket No. 1:15-CR-00075-1

Insider Trading

U.S. v. John Ed James: Docket No. 4:20-cr-695

Updated August 11, 2023