Al-Qaida’ in gold market?
LONDON (Commodity Online): Gold has the dubious distinction of abetting crimes across the globe. And, this time the yellow metal has done something which the world has never seen or heard till now. It is worse than 9/11 or 26/11 terror strikes on World Trade Center and Mumbai respectively.
You must be wondering where did such a big crime occurred. Because, this terrorism is a bloodless one. Here, only gold and dollars are involved — that too in trillions. The new crime is called financial terrorism. And if you dare to expose this, your life is at danger. It is like a new ‘Al-Qaida’ plotting to hit world economies. And, if the plot is exposed, the financial terrorists will bump you off.
If you have any doubt, ask the whistle-blower in this case, London-based precious metals trader Andrew Maguire. He is now facing death. He got the taste of what is in store when a car hit his car last week. The incident sparked widespread fear over the fate of the trader who is the crucial witness in the trillion dollar fraud which is haunting the bullion market.
The trader had accused JPMorgan Chase of manipulating the gold and silver markets. Andrew Maguire and his wife were traveling in their car when another car coming out of a side street struck their vehicle. That car then hit two more vehicles before fleeing. London cops using helicopters and patrol cars chased the hit-and-run driver before nabbing that person, whose name has not been released by authorities.
Maguire and his wife were released from the hospital last week. The incident occurred after Maguire’s name came to light last week during a US Commodities Futures Trading Commission hearing on limiting gold and silver positions held by large market participants in order to prevent manipulation.
Maguire had said the naked short selling scam is in the trillions of dollars, making it by far the biggest financial fraud in history. He calls it “financial terrorism” and accuses the naked short sellers of “treason” for putting national security at risk.
It might be hard to believe that foreign entities are plotting to crush the US economy, and perhaps they are not, but there is no doubt that loopholes in the clearing and settlement system – not just for metals, but also stocks, bonds, Treasuries, and derivatives – could quite easily be exploited by any foreign entity desiring to do harm to the US economy. The only dispute is whether such a desire exists.
The world doesn’t have more appetite for any more financial scandals or for any more Wall Street bailouts. But if the fraud and manipulation taking place in the precious metal markets ever gets totally exposed it will change the US financial system forever. And the crime involving trillions of dollars can change the world economies.
The crime came to light during the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission hearing on manipulation in gold and silver markets. During the hearing, Maguire was identified as having sent emails to Bart Chilton, a CFTC commissioner, and Eliud Ramirez, head of the commission’s enforcement division, alleging that JPMorgan had used its massive metals positions to manipulate the commodities markets.
What Maguire revealed was every ounce of gold or silver is being sold 100 times. This is quite similar to the naked short selling of stocks, where traders sell stock that does not exist, but enter IOUs in their computers, and then fail to deliver what they have promised. It is hard to distinguish this from fraud.
The problem isn’t just that criminal naked short sellers manipulate the metals market downwards. It is that they have created a condition where a foreign entity can merely demand delivery of real metal to induce a massive squeeze that sends the price of metals skyrocketing, putting huge downward pressure on the dollar.
