No Evidence Ex-Merrill Traders Intended to Mislead, Defense Says
- Bases, Pacilio accused of spoofing precious-metals markets
- Jury started deliberating fraud case after two-week trial
This article is for subscribers only.
Lawyers for two former traders at Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit told jurors that the spoofing trial against their clients had failed to reveal any evidence that they intended to manipulate precious-metals prices, a key criteria for the fraud charges brought by U.S. prosecutors.
Jurors will continue deliberations Tuesday after two weeks of trial testimony in the case of Edward Bases and John Pacilio, who are accused of illegally flooding the market with buy and sell orders they quickly canceled to move gold, silver or platinum prices in the direction they wanted. While there’s nothing wrong with canceling orders, both men were accused of intentionally defrauding other traders.