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DOJ Antitrust Division Considering Launching Investigation Into Silver Market Manipulation By JPM
Eric King reports the breaking news that in a letter obtained by Ted Butler, the DOJ's Antitrust department is considering launching an investigation into silver market manipulation by JP Morgan. Should an announcement of a full formal probe of manipulation by JPM follow, it would be tantamount to a confirmation of what numerous individuals have been claiming over the years, that JP Morgan, the LBMA, the CFTC, various banks, and even that kindly old grandpa who was so much against derivatives except when he was about to lose money as a result of regulation that he is spending the whole weekend telling his investors in Omaha to run, not walk, to Borsheim's, and buy all their massively overpriced trinkets (you can't be a quadrillionaire without first being a trillionaire), are nothing but a borderline criminal cabal that traffics in wealth extraction courtesy of a few monopolist players. As Eric King discloses in its letter the Anti-Trust division announces that "it will carefully consider the issue of silver market manipulation by JP Morgan and other traders. Generally the CFTC investigates these types of market manipulations. However, the suggestion that JPMorgan Chase may be signaling other traders, warrants further analysis. The DOJ will carefully consider the issue you raise, and you can be assured that if we conclude that silver traders have engaged in anti-competitive conduct, we will take appropriate enforcement action."
Ted Butler, always cutting to the point, says: "It's about time a major government organization stepped up to end what has been a very serious crime in progress that has basically covered two decades...[JP Morgan's] level of concentration only exists in the silver markets. Concentration is the hallmark of manipulation or a monopoly. Our markets are supposed to be free markets, they are not supposed to be controlled by anybody. Right now the silver market is a monopoly, the chief monopolist is JP Morgan, and the only entity that can step up to JPM is the Antitrust division of the DOJ...If you want to put it into perspective, more important and more serious than what is currently happening with Goldman Sachs. This is a crime in progress, this is an allegation of current market manipulation. This is as serious as you get. You don't get bigger than market manipulation."
And, as a scheduled daily reminder to Christine Varney: if you are evaluating JP Morgan for being a silver market monopolist, maybe you can also consider Goldman Sachs for monopolizing the entire global fixed income market (mostly OTC but also cash).
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Everyone assumes JPM will be found guilty. This is the US we're talking about, now. Don't get your hopes up.
The manipulation will end at the precise moment when it can no longer be maintained.
I am Chumbawamba.
Little Timmay Geithner's Uncle Jamie Dimon:
Say it ain't so...
Better up those campaign bribes to Rahm Baby and Obummer...
Something stinks. Perhaps the oligarchs, having extracted the maximum they can from various frauds, know the jig is up and have therefore left these corporate shells aka JPM, GS et. al. to fend for themselves and die off. No doubt the timing is impeccable so that the US Govt. can extract the maximum political benefit by "prosecuting" these corrupt organizations.
Gordon and the Chumba may be right on the mark. The top dogs running off now or soon would fit the bill just right.
And even .gov gets to look good "prosecuting" the guilty.
I am back in America.
I will be buying (more) gold and ammo real soon.
the event is soon
...they have dragged us into:
http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/indexi.html
red pill, eh?
I never understood why the banks would pay massive bonuses, only to see the Fed inflate away any value. The bankers personally would clean house if the whole thing collapsed. They are the ones with the biggest piles of fiat, and could scoop up all the valuable assets for peanuts in a collapse. I doubt any of them are loyal to any firm; their only loyalty is to money.
Dam shit, for a moment, I thought integrity and justice are about to prevail in the Obama administration.
A sliver of silver glistens from the web they wove
to trap investors in their imperial cove
blinded by the the compelling silver light
the spider itself to an entangled plight
Wow. What are the odds on TWO silver market corners in one lifetime? I never would have made that bet.
As if anything is really going to happen......
Poor Ted Butler has been screeching for years now.....
"J.P. Morgan is going to be carried out on a stretcher!!"
"This manipulation is going to end, I swear!!"
And each and every time this manipulation hysteria reaches fever pitch, the thick-necked, Rugby player "Boyz" at COMEX end up stuffing the weakling silver longs once again.
Check out the topping pattern on some of these silver stocks.
They really shanked these stocks at the bell Friday afternoon.
When are these guys ever going to learn just to keep their mouths shut and let the market sort this out by itself??
Prepare for the normal and usual 25% - 30% correction which happens in the metals market every spring for the last 5 years.
GATA's market commentary from yesterday contained numerous predictions of "an epic short squeeze" in the silver market. No doubt, all those GATA boys are now loaded up on margin and they will get taken to the cleaners once again.
I think you've been staring at your charts a little too long in my opinion. If you are waiting for a 25-30% "correction" any time soon, you'll be waiting for a long time.
This was, now is and it will prove itself out to be.........drum roll please....... a currency crisis. Which means gold & silver win, fiat money loses.
At least post some chick pictures so we can overlook whatever other nonsense you are spewing.
You are what you condone or accept in silence.
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds" -- Albert Einstein
Ah yes the patent clerk who the NY Times made a pop star and who cribbed some of his best stuff (i.e. E=MC2) from Poincare and others. The douchy denke experiments on relativity have hobbled the advancement of many branches of science for a century and still counting... see Hilton Ratcliffe 'The Virtue of Heresy' a good study in iconoclasm. Albert's star is losing its luster and it beginning to seem that he too was rather a mediocre talent.
Pope, have you ever read any of Albert's work? If you have, and if you have the science chops to understand it - it is absolutely brilliant. I was blown away by his clarity and physics insight shown in his 1903 paper on special relativity.
Crystal clear as a space/time continuum ? Heh heh
Stretching space? Stretch this !
Quantum mechanics makes more sense to me.Max rules!
Thank you Attitude Check and thank you Pope Clement.
Putting the 2 together:
the catch with Einstein is that he pinched the brilliant early concept and analysis from his wife.
She was rejected by his snobby parents and was far more intelligent than he. She developed the original briiliant work as a student. He abandoned her with her wrecked hip from birth to bring up their child alone, finally paid her off for a divorce with his Nobel prize money. She used it to buy the block of flats she and the boy had rented since einstein dumped her.
Later work he had to generate without thieving her ideas so was not so good.
I regret also the scummy TS Eliot whose wife wrote the poems for him and then he institutionalised her.... there were vampire suckers before GS.
Thank you Attitude check.
Oh you can bet they will be found guilty, I guarantee that. They will then have to pay a fine for the damage they have done. 43 million should cover all the profits they made over all these years, shouldn't it?
A veritable slap on the wrist and move on. I would rather the manipulation be exposed the old fashioned way, a price explosion, the deal with the mess.
They must really be in a bad way if the FEDS are getting out in front of this.
Robot, as you are God's gift to traders, I am sure you know sometimes your ilk will take profits on a Friday after a good week.
As far as your recent hate on for the metals, I thought all traders were agnostic. Ride the wave and all. I remember the days when you lauded Iamgold to new highs. You seem to deride this move the whole way. What changed?
Murphy is what he is. I wonder why anybody would ridicule him. Are you and Jeff Christian buddies? Personally, I respect him for the balls he has to take on TPTB.
It would be amazing to see a price explosion, and see JPM scramble to buy back its massive short position. How much would they have to pay to cover that monster?!?!
What if the US government bailed out JPM, in effect figuratively paying the fine to itself? My web is tangled.
> "You seem to deride this move the whole way. What changed?"
RobotTrader : stock market :: Sasha Baron Cohen : journalism
(don't take it at face value)
To add, I must have missed the memo to load up on leverage and/or buy Futures contracts.
I believe the play this time is buying physical. And its not just grandpa and the guy who runs the drycleaner who are doing it. What do you think all those Europeans with millions are doing now, buying Scotia Mocatta Silver certificates?
The play here is buying JPM puts for a few hundred percent gain...Just like GS puts...they've been an ATM. GS 135 puts were up as much as 700% on Friday...that didn't suck at all.
How far out are you looking and at what strike? Why those instead of diff times and strike? Just trying to educate myself on options buying, thanks.
JP Morgan failed to expand thier short position during this run-up. This news explains why. Without the help of JPM, the other big shorts may or may not have the power to contain the market which is now aware of manipulation, and is moving to take advantage of it.
Also, you can't count on seasonality any more, as the Chinese have taken over the top spot in terms of gold demand (I don't have stats on silver, but I would bet that its the same thing there). There is no PM buying season in China, save for a spike before Chinese New Year.
I don't know what GATA does with their money, but they are certainly fools if they buy on margin. If they have been accumulating for all these years without margin, then they are already doing quite well for themselves, and are likely to become the next set of elites. I plan to be with that group as well, though I may not be as wealthy as those who correctly guessed when the pot was going to boil over and went with leverage.
Isn't this forum for posts? That looks a lot like a personal blog.
Topping action in what time frame ? SSRI is a shit of a company, but a company in which I have the share certificates. They were such a hassle to get, it is not worth my effort to unload them even though I know the company is mediocre ! However I believe they will do better than a deposit account. I also got the share certificates for SLW. If you look at it with a magnifying glass agreed, they might go down for a week or two or even 5 months, but in a year they will be much, much higher.
I don't believe the GATA boys are loaded up on margin because they mostly all own physical gold and advise against the holding of paper gold in any form. Anyway I, a subscriber and supporter, am not loaded up on margin so your post is not only offensive (not to me, but to those guys who are probably doing a lot more than you to get integrity back into the system) but plain wrong. The GATA boys as you call them when they do play margin are shrewd enough to predict the take downs before option expiry and the two days after designed to shake off those option holders intending to take delivery, and then go long. Why would you predict it all in advance and trade against your own prediction ?
Topping action in what time frame ? SSRI is a shit of a company, but a company in which I have the share certificates. They were such a hassle to get, it is not worth my effort to unload them even though I know the company is mediocre ! However I believe they will do better than a deposit account. I also got the share certificates for SLW. If you look at it with a magnifying glass agreed, they might go down for a week or two or even 5 months, but in a year they will be much, much higher.
I don't believe the GATA boys are loaded up on margin because they mostly all own physical gold and advise against the holding of paper gold in any form. Anyway I, a subscriber and supporter, am not loaded up on margin so your post is not only offensive (not to me, but to those guys who are probably doing a lot more than you to get integrity back into the system) but plain wrong. The GATA boys as you call them when they do play margin are shrewd enough to predict the take downs before option expiry and the two days after designed to shake off those option holders intending to take delivery, and then go long. Why would you predict it all in advance and trade against your own prediction ?
the ft yesterday:
morgan stanley moore capitial manipulation platinum and palladium. of ourse a fine, but the when firms do this they need to be excluded from trading. the were "banging the close" hell I see this on a regular basis on spy. it's clear the big boys do this over and over to influece the opening the next day and limit the damage.
Novice Question: So... now is not the time to buy those Canadian silver Maple Leaves?
depend on which currency you will be trading them for, and what you think will happen to that currency next.
I have silver ML's myself, but with the euro being taken to the woodshed and China committed to stimulus and a low Yuan policy, I think the dollar will strenghten in the short term.
If TSHTF, people will sell all they have to raise cash, including selling silver. That will be the time to buy, if you can get it.
If I have your post right, you are saying that paper silver will be sold, driving down the price, which will create a buying opportunity for buying physical? If that is what you are saying, I agree wholeheartedly. One must differentiate between paper and physical these days!
Not exactly. The "silver" that people will be selling will most likely be empty paper promises to deliver and nothing more. If you want to load up on thin sheets of carbon-based material, get your cash ready. Otherwise, the time to buy is basically over already.
Sure, there's still a reasonable amount of physical supply out there now. But wait until an angry horde of panicked investors all pile into the physical market at once.
I am Chumbawamba.
+1
Still have some (a little?) time to go out and buy physical silver and gold. Go ahead! Yes you can!
Exactly. In 2008 there were several times when both APMEX and the local coin shops RAN OUT of silver. Back then, there wasn't nearly as much noise about paper fraud as there is now. You can bet that such sources will run out within hours of a major market event.
The guys who frequent the coin shops around here don't even know who GATA is, or anything about manipulation for that matter. The one owner told me 90% of the world's gold is in the US, he probably thinks it's in Fort Knox.
Trust me, I've talked about these things before only to be met with blank stares. Hopefully this continues when TSHTF again so I can buy below $10,9,8.
jd rose
it appears you are as seriously mistaken as the coin shop guys "iF" you think you are going to scoop up silver in the 8 to 10 buck range ..
in my undiluted humble opinion
It could happen in a period of getting liquid. The price could be driven much lower than it is now. Just stay on your toes and have a source for physical when the time comes.
What is a "reasonable amount of physical supply" in your mind? Are you serious? I honestly can't tell when you say something so outrageous. Demand for physical has been artifically low, resulting in a supply gap that has only been filled with paper. What's reasonable about above ground silver now being more rare than gold?
Double post.
I am having the same problem, Bob Ross lookin' Deacon guy...
Not to worry... It is just the NSA monitoring our subversive ZH Internet traffic again...
Are the Taxpayers paying the Zoo for use of the Dogs and Ponys? My Uncle works for the Bronx Zoo. I can get a good deal!!
Better that the DOJ does the investigating then the CFTC. Gary Gensler is a Goldman plant - he talks a good game about better regulation but he has done nothing. I wouldn' trust the CFTC to do anything about the fraud while he is in charge.
I wouldn't trust the DOJ either. You think turning a blind eye to silver market manipulation is any worse than turning a blind eye to torture, perjury, sedition and all the other crimes the people who steal and abuse our consent have committed?
I want people to stop being naive already. Is that just too much to ask?
I am Chumbawamba.
You are right. But lesser of 2 evils. Someone has to enforce the rules somewhere. We can live in hope.
the manipulation does exist and is currntly a crime in progress. Like any burglary or other crime in progress the law should step in "immediately" and then investigate, rather than let the crime continiou as they do now. Therefore i do not have any faith in Holder doing anything more than make noises.
The pols are the ones with the real (military) power. They would be happy to throw any one of their "masters" to the wolves if it meant getting elected for another term. JPM definitely knew this was coming, because they failed to increase their short position during the recent price run up, the first time they have failed to do so since they inherited the position from Bear Stearns. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the top guys "found dead".
They'll be partying with Ken Lay in some fortefied compound in the south pacific while the world burns.
I agree Chumaawamba.
Can't trust them. Why now all of a sudden? Concerted effort? Manipulation?
If the DOJ lawyers are finally going to earn their fat government paychecks, they could start by kicking 11 million illegals out of the country. Why not do their own work instead of the CFTC's?
I've known a lot of lawyers, but I have yet to meet one who can read financial statements, much less get a feel for commodities trading.
Think of a giant spreadsheet with a calculation that doesn't add up. Trillions of dollars of assets have been sold that do not actually exist. And the spreadsheet makes this clear ...
So, one solution would be to add in a single cell to plug the difference. Maybe that's JPM and GS. ? If they put all the garbage on the books of these banks and then torpedo the banks, don't all the problems w/ PM shortages disappear?
Well, all the problems other than the rioting in the streets as those invested in paper gold and silver lose everything.
Not to mention that they will then have to face the problem of exploding PM prices shining a spotlight on the weakness of fiat currencies.
Why investment banking? Why now?
This is extortion pure and simple. It's a message from da boyz, dat you damn well better not opose any special fees or any other "requests" from our President for Life.
What is the take home message from Arthur Andersen's demise? Any financial or professional firm can be destroyed by accusations of wrongdoing.
They won in the Supreme Court by the way. Fat lot of good it did them.
Poured myself another large one on this news :-))
Green light for DoJ aginst JPMorgan means its all over . The end.
Better to fess up than have a war. Perhaps China made them do it. It could also be one more trap.
It sounds to me like the Obummer's political advisors woke up one day a couple of weeks ago and realized that it might create good political capital to go after the "fat cats" of Wall Street. So every day we get a new headline and news of a new investigation is leaked" so that the folks watching their TV can say that the President for life is really in charge and is looking out for "us" against those greedy bastards.
Actions speak louder than words. An indictment (and we don't even have one here) is not a conviction. Not disagreeing about the manipulation or the GS monopoly. Just being cynical about the public spirit of our elected and appointed representatives.
BO has to ask those "fat cats" for the key to the safe where his dick is stored, so he can pee. This is just a delay tactic "We Are Doing Something!"
Meanwhile the trucks head out to HK, the next New York City.
"It's about time a major government organization stepped up to end what has been a very serious crime in progress that has basically covered two decades..."
Government?
We have a government??
Of course. Where did you think half of your paycheck was going? The Church?
A couple thoughts.
Are they all in this together, or are powers turning on eachother?
If the former, obviously this won't turn out as well as hoped for PM holders ..somehow. Call it more of the same. We admit no gulit and will pay 22 million in fines.
If its the latter, I think I am going to read the Andrew Jackson, Nelson Biddle saga again. Can't remember what happenned to the economy and credit when the president turned on the bankers. Was it unbridled prosperity? Hmmmm...
Another analogy that comes to mind is when a 2-bit hood puts the screws to his mafia overlords. How does that ususally turn out???
"Was it unbridled prosperity?"
Well, the Industrial Revolution spread to the US around that time.
The massive short silver position at Chase is the most instructive case history in the systemic fraud which has permeated the precious metals markets. Chase "inherited" its some 200 million ounces of silver short positioning from the now defunct Bear Stearns which it acquired in the questionable dealings following the collapse of Lehman in September 2008. Previous to that, AIG, the economic black hole that was once the largest insurance company in the cosmos, held the COMEX silver short positions along with similar shorts in gold, which it was required to cede to Bear Stearns by the Sheriff of Wall Street, Elliot Spitzer.
Until its demise BS continued the salutary task of "manipulation and fleecing of the technical funds and other speculative traders" according to Butler. The acquisition of Bear Stearns by Chase resulted a massive takedown of silver from over $20/oz. to just under $9 in a matter of days, indicative of the deluge of paper silver selling that flooded the market in the engineered collapse, something not seen since the days of the Hunt brothers attempt to corner the market in 1980. This kind of naked short selling was an object lesson in the illegal manipulations employed to bail out the endemically insolvent banking system in both the U.S. and UK.
The short positions now held by Chase came with interesting baggage which surfaced last year when the Chinese threatened to walk away from their derivative obligations contracted with the large U.S. investment banks. Apparently the silver positions were accompanied by equally massive offsetting OTC derivatives contracts possessed by Chinese state owned investment funds which provided AIG with the backing to carry on its shenanigans of selling of its short silver paper contracts on the Comex. With these derivative contracts passing through Bear Stearns, JPMC became the world's largest counterparty with an extraordinary derivative exposure whose notional value has been estimated at $80 to $90 trillion as opposed to $1.66 trillion in assets or roughly six times the GDP of the U.S. economy and outstripping the world economy itself by $21 billion. Butler has even gone so far as to suggest that these Chinese OTC derivative positions pose a threat to national security.I carry no water for JP Morgan, but some of us didn't just fall off the banana boat. Stocks are sold, not bought, and salesmen often have a challenged view of ethics. That said, this is less than nothing.
In commodities, concentration is not evidence of wrongdoing. Grain markets could not exist if a handfull of large outfits were not half or more of the market. Also, I never thought I would live to see this, but lately the commodity side has been cleaner than cash based markets. Wonders will never cease.
This is mostly about envy. The Washington wonks envy the wealth and power of Wall Street. Stay tuned. This is shaping up to be a world class pissing competition.
I'm not sure the slaves in Washington can challenge their owners. It's just a dog and pony show.
and what were the late to the party now cobwebs falling off eyes guys , doing at 400 buck silver ,
some times it takes a long time for the experts and the article poster headline folks to reach for a silver ring
Like I've said before; it's all part of the plan.
What large outfit is out of Chicago?
What large outfit was just made a DMM?
Who owns said firm?
Citadel maybe? Any clues? I'm in Chicago...maybe they're hiring.....
Remember, remember the 5th.....oops. wrong thread. Oh yeah, the bankers thought they bought and owned Uncle Adolph until that wiley corporal kicked their asses to the front door of Dachau and then they saw the light. Darn good thing history never repeats itself.
It's about damn time!!! These crooks are as bad as Goldman. Dimon thinks if Blankfein is GOD, then he is Jesus. All of these crooks need to go down, go to jail, and the businesses closed.
"But gold and silver, will, in the long run, revolt against depreciation, and separate from the value of paper; for the progress of all such systems appears to be, that the paper will take the command in the beginning, and gold and silver in the end." - {T. Paine}
Thy cynical side of me makes me wonder if it turns a government attempted cover-up in the name of investigation, just like what the last CFTC investigation into Silver market turned out to be.
Q: How can you tell a real investigation from a fake one?
A: You can't.
That's why we sit and wait to see how this unfolds, just like the GS probe. There are people on both sides of the fence and it's too early to tell who's right.
Time will tell for sure but Silver and Gold will win one way or the other.
If the equity markets begin the long awaited 10% - 15% correction, then gold and silver will be smashed along with stocks.
Same thing has been repeated over and over.
And traders will once again pile into dollars and U.S. Treasuries.
The ONLY chance silver has to take out the highs is if some thing positive happens in Asian markets (i.e strong move up in Chinese stocks) and the Dow suddenly lurches up to head to 12,000.
Then, and only then, will silver have a chance to explode to the upside.
If the Dow crashes down to 10,000, then silver will get bombed back to $15.
I see you come from the Pretcher school of thought... or lack thereof.
I think the govt will work w/ wall st to make sure the govt checkbook will be supplied with new funds to enable their spending habit.
All the other appendages(markets, preferably foreign first) will be sacrificed to keep the fix going.
Correction Robo - PAPER gold and silver will be smashed alongwith stocks - this time.
To give back all the gains in the same 9 or so trading days as the last paper smashes. There's so much paper any more it would have to sell off 50 plus percent to even touch the physical market with anything that lasts.
Let's give credit to the person most likely responsible for the DOJ investigation. That would be JASON HOMMEL.
http://news.silverseek.com/GoldIsMoney/1270762337.php
Thanks Jason.
Perhaps they are turning that fiat into gold asap while it's still cheap....
Cool. Good ole catfight. I have to admit this is entertaining at the end of the cycle, well until people get liquidate it's fun.
"As I've stated several times before, I found out exactly how little Goldman Sachs cared for their clients when OffshoreAlert exposed a Goldman Sachs-sponsored criminal enterprise called Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings, which went on to commit a $1 billion insurance/reinsurance fraud and a $50 million securities fraud."
"The architect of this scandal was Reuben Jeffery III, a Goldman Sachs managing director who later went on to become Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission."
http://www.kycnews.com/message_board_detail.asp?id=62346&page=1
"It is remarkable that someone who was either knowingly involved in a massive fraud or, alternatively, could not spot it when it was right in front of his face could be deemed suitable to be a top regulator," says Marchant. "What confidence can investors have in the financial system when someone who has played a leading role in a major scandal is appointed to such a lofty position, apparently because of his political connections rather than his ability to regulate? No wonder the financial industry is in such a mess."
http://www.offshorealertconference.com/2010/articles/Goldman-Sachs-Fraud...
http://www.muckety.com/Reuben-Jeffery-III/86354.muckety
Thanks for the links. After reading the last one interactively I ran out of expletives. I thought I was jaded, but that, well I'm #$!@&* speechless.
DOW chart shows an expanding wedge indicating a significant move is probable.
MARKET UPDATES:
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/latest-market-outlook-0
Bring us some convictions, then I will smile. Silver is so grossly undervalued it is not even funny.
Miners look like a coiled spring to me...
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_m5i6pLhlNWU/S7tVs7_ZEGI/AAAAAAAABt8/U46SHnRdt1g/s1600/GPM.JPG
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