The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) today asked the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) whether it has ever audited the gold reported to it by the New York Commodities Exchange as being eligible or registered for sale and delivery on the exchange.
In a letter to commission Chairman Heath P. Tarbert, Chris Powell, and Harvey Organ wrote:
Recent turmoil in the gold markets in the United States and the United Kingdom has raised questions about the integrity of certain market participants, including the New York Commodities Exchange (Comex) and the London Bullion Market Association.
The letter asked:
-- Has your commission ever audited the gold kept in Comex-approved vaults and reported to the commission as registered or eligible for sale and delivery?
"-- If such audits have been conducted, when and what did they find?
"-- Who conducted these audits?
"-- Were these audits ever made public? If so, when and how? May we see them?
"-- Are future audits planned? If so, when and who will conduct them?
In recent years, GATA has put similar critical questions to the CFTC without getting answers. Several of those questions have been pressed by U.S. Rep. Alex X. Mooney, R-West Virginia, but the commission has evaded his inquiries too.
Especially avoided lately by the commission are whether it is aware of futures market trading by the U.S. government, its agents, and other governments and whether it has jurisdiction over manipulative trading by the U.S. government.
While the commission refuses to answer whether it is aware of futures trading by governments, filings by CME Group, operator of the New York Commodities Exchange, with the CFTC and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that CME Group provides special discounts to governments and central banks for surreptitious futures trading.
GATA's new letter to the CFTC is posted in PDF format here.
About the Author:
Chris Powell is a political columnist and former managing editor at the Journal Inquirer, a daily newspaper in Manchester, Connecticut, USA, where he has worked since graduating from high school in 1967. His column is published in newspapers throughout Connecticut. He is also secretary/treasurer of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc., (GATA) which he co-founded in 1999 to expose and oppose the rigging of the gold market by Western central banks and their investment bank agents.
