Federal officials said Wednesday that they’ve indicted a 56-year-old New Canaan man and charged him for deceptive trading practices in connection with “multi-year schemes” in the precious metals market.
Town resident Edward Bases and John Pacilio, 54, of Southport, each have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and commodities fraud and one count of commodities fraud, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Pacilio was also charged with five counts of spoofing, according to the release, from the office of Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Assistant Director in Charge William Sweeney of the FBI’s New York Field Office.
Both men are identified as “employees of a global financial institution” who worked as precious metals traders at New York City banks and misled the market for futures traded on the Commodity Exchange Inc run by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group, according to the release.
“The defendants and their co-conspirators are alleged to have defrauded market participants by placing orders that they did not intend to execute in order to create the appearance of false supply and demand and to induce other market participants to trade at prices, quantities and times that they otherwise would not have traded,” the DOJ said.
Trial Attorneys Ankush Khardori and Jeffery Le Riche of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case, the federal agency said.