Another JPMorgan Chase & Co. official was charged in the U.S. probe of the bank's precious metals trading operation.

The allegations are part of a broader investigation of market spoofing that has now resulted in charges against six bank employees.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is one of the various authorities that JPMorgan has previously said were investigating its metals trading, according to one of the people, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. The watchdog has requested documents and other information from JPMorgan, the source said.

“The London Bullion Market Association has removed Michael Nowak, JPMorgan’s head of precious metals trading, from its board after he was indicted by the US Department of Justice for a “massive, multiyear scheme” to manipulate the precious metals markets.

Michael Nowak, JP Morgan Chase managing director and head of the bank’s global precious metals desk, who is also a Board member of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), has just been indicted & charged by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) with manipulating the prices of precious metals-futures contracts over an 8 year period.

U.S. prosecutors took an unusually aggressive turn in their investigation of price fixing at JPMorgan Chase & Co., describing its precious metals trading desk as a criminal enterprise operating inside the bank for nearly a decade.

Two JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) employees, including a top metals trading executive, have been placed on leave in response to a U.S. criminal investigation into the bank’s metals trading practices, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Michael Nowak and Gregg Smith are on leave, the source said on Thursday, making them the third and fourth JPMorgan employees to be connected to the criminal investigation that has resulted in guilty pleas from two former JPMorgan metals traders.

A former trader at Scotia Capital and Bear Stearns pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal crime and admitted manipulating precious metals markets for nine years

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission today issued two orders filing and settling charges against former precious metals traders at separate financial institutions who entered into formal cooperation agreements with the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement (Division) and admitted to spoofing and manipulative conduct in the futures markets.

I wish to ask the Minister a number of questions.

First of all, let me say that gold price suppression (“fixing,” “rigging,” “manipulating” or however else you want to think about it) is not just a conspiracy theory. It’s a well-documented phenomenon, with real actors and real ramifications. In 2014, Barclays was fined nearly $44 million for failing to prevent traders from manipulating the London gold “fix.” Late last year, a former JPMorgan trader pleaded guilty to manipulating the U.S. metals markets. Remember the gold futures “flash crash” of 2014?