Joon H. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that the Office has filed a proposed order to dismiss the outstanding charges against JAVIER MARTIN-ARTAJO and JULIEN GROUT, two former derivatives traders at JPMorgan Chase & Company(“JPMorgan”). MARTIN-ARTAJO and GROUT were indicted on September 16, 2013, for their alleged participation in a conspiracy to hide losses in a credit derivatives trading portfolio at JPMorgan. MARTIN-ARTAJO, a Spanish citizen, and GROUT, a French citizen, have not appeared on these criminal charges. On April 23, 2015, a court in Spain rejected the Government’s request to extradite MARTIN-ARTAJO, and a prior determination had been made that attempts to extradite GROUT from France would have been futile. The motion to dismiss is subject to the approval of United States District Judge Lorna G. Schofield.
As set forth in the proposed order, the Government sought charges in this matter based in part on the Government’s anticipated ability to call as a trial witness Bruno Iksil, a former colleague of the two defendants at JPMorgan. Based on a review of recent statements and writings made by Iksil, however, the Government no longer believes that it can rely on the testimony of Iksil in prosecuting this case, even if the defendants appeared. Based on these developments, among other factors, the Government has decided not to keep these charges pending, but rather to seek their dismissal at this time.
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