To discuss charge and orbital ordering in magnetite ( Fe 3 O 4 ), a spinless three-band Hubbard model was investigated by the exact diagonalization of finite size clusters and the Hartree–Fock approximation. A state with noncollinear orbital moments is obtained with both the methods. The orbital moments are not induced by the ordered spin moment via the spin–orbit interaction as usual magnetic materials but by spontaneous breaking of the time reversal symmetry within the orbital degrees of freedom. The result is consistent with a large orbital moment found in the measurements of the magnetic circular dichroism of Fe 2p X-ray absorption spectra.