Nation : Tapes May Delay Trading Fraud Trial

The government has more than 250 hours of secret tape recordings of one group of traders and brokers it has accused of fraud, a file so massive that the case may not come to trial until at least a year from now, lawyers said today.

The disclosure came during a federal court hearing called to set a trial date for more than a dozen yen traders and brokers at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange who were indicted on fraud and racketeering charges earlier this month.

Lawyers representing the group told Judge George Marovich of the U.S. District Court that the government had agreed to turn over the tapes to defense lawyers to help them prepare for trial, in addition to granting them access to a “roomful of documents, probably numbering in the upper thousands.”