New Jersey trader gets 3 years in prison for spoofing
CHICAGO -- A high-frequency commodities trader from New Jersey found guilty of disrupting commodity futures prices to make $1.4 million has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Fifty-four-year-old Michael Coscia of Rumson, New Jersey, also was sentenced Wednesday to two years of supervised release. Coscia was found guilty in November of fraud and spoofing. Authorities said he artificially bumped up commodities prices by placing orders through Chicago-based CME Group and London-based ICE Futures Europe that he canceled within milliseconds.
Prosecutors said it was the first case under major changes to federal commodities law in 2010, when Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms after the financial crisis. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of five to seven years in prison.
Coscia contended that he always intended to fill his orders.