Big Board Trader on trial says No Way, Jose

Richard Volpe, a former trader at Dutch stock-trading company Van der Moolen Holdings NV's Van der Moolen Specialists USA, the first defendant to testify in the New York Stock Exchange trading-abuses case, denied that he ever ordered anyone to make improper trades in violation of Big Board rules while working on the exchange floor.

At his trial for alleged fraud, Volpe, testified that he never ordered the clerks he worked with to make trades that were improperly positioned between buyers and sellers in order to make illicit profits for the firm or to jump ahead of customer orders. Improperly positioning oneself between ordering, instead of matching those buy and sell orders, is known as "interpositioning."

Prosecutors have accused Volpe, a floor official at the NYSE from 1996-02, of making improper trades for the firm's account in shares of Pfizer Inc. and Walt Disney Co. is charged with two counts of securities fraud and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted.

During opening statements, his lawyers described Volpe as a "dinosaur" who started at the exchange when trades were made on paper and who didn't know how to work the NYSE's computer system. His lawyers said he handled orders coming from brokers on the floor, while his clerks handled computerized orders. His lawyers argued that the clerks directed the allegedly improper trades without Mr. Volpe's knowledge.

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