In December 2018, a man in his early 30s was intercepted on arrival at Fort Lauderdale airport and taken to a room where two FBI agents sat waiting.
The target was scared and already on high alert — one of his associates had recently admitted to crimes he knew he'd also committed. Christian Trunz wasn’t a terrorist or a drug trafficker, but a mid-level trader of precious metals returning from his honeymoon. Crucially: he was also a longstanding employee of JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest bullion bank.
The FBI’s airport ambush described by Trunz was a crucial step in the pursuit by U.S. prosecutors of JPMorgan’s precious metals desk, leading up to last week’s climax — the conviction on 13 counts of the man who was once the most powerful figure in the gold market, the desk’s former global head Michael Nowak.
