May 9 (Reuters) - Australia's corporate watchdog said on

Thursday the Markets Disciplinary Panel (MDP) fined JPMorgan

Chase & Co's ( JPM ) Australian arm A$775,000 ($509,872.50) for

allowing suspicious client orders to be placed on the futures

market.

The MDP found that J.P. Morgan Securities Australia failed

to detect 36 orders on the Eastern Australia Wheat futures

between 11 Jan. and 3 March 2022 that were placed with the

intention of manipulating the market, the Australian Securities

and Investments Commission (ASIC) said in a statement.

The orders were carried out "close to the end of a trading

session to influence the daily settlement price of a derivate

contract."

ASIC said MDP found JPMSAL's failure to identify the

suspicious trades to be' careless' and that it should have acted

more expeditiously when ASIC flagged the transactions.

"There are real-world consequences for this sort of

behaviour, which is why tackling manipulation in energy and

commodities derivatives markets has been an ASIC priority,"

ASIC  Deputy Chair Sarah Court said.

JPMSAL's did not contest the MDP's allegations against

it and paid the penalty amount.

($1 = 1.5200 Australian dollars)