Deutsche Bank Admits To Gold & Silver Price Fixing, Agrees To Expose Other Banks

THE GREAT MANIPULATION

Eric Sprott offers his thoughts on the recent Deutsche Bank settlement for gold and silver price manipulation, and whether the price-fixing cartel will be exposed at other banks.

Importantly, Deutsche has agreed to provide substantial electronic evidence to help the plaintiffs in their suit against the five other banks accused: Bank of Nova Scotia, UBS, Barclays, HSBC and SocGen.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni, the plaintiff’s attorney writes:

"In addition to valuable monetary consideration, Deutsche Bank has also agreed to provide cooperation to the Plaintiffs, including the production of instant messages and other electronic communications."

This case isn't the only recent example of bankers getting caught talking openly about ripping off investors and clients. A year ago Citigroup, JPM, Barclays, and RBS all pled guilty to criminal charges of rigging foreign exchange markets following the leak of several embarrassing messages. That case was based on logs from a chat group that participants called 'The Cartel.'

Here's a perfect example:

"…whats the worst price I can put on this where the customers decision to trade with me or give me future business doesn’t change…if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying."

Comments

[DailyBail]

Details on the settlement at Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/deutsche-bank-lawsuit-metals-idUSL2N17H1IA

[Sagebrush]

I don't see Wall Street banks included so they must have been innocent law abiding banks doing God's work while this was going on.

[Cheyenne]

I hear ya, Sage, but in fairness this story ain't exactly over yet. Deutsche Bank isn't the first case of a cartel member throwing its co-conspirators under the bus.

Recall that in the foreign currency-rigging cases from May 2015, UBS ratted out its fellow criminal cartel members. In exchange, the DOJ spared UBS from the criminal antitrust guilty pleas that it got from the other banks. (Instead, the DOJ ripped up its 2012 non prosecution agreement with UBS from the LIBOR rigging case, and nailed UBS on that delayed basis instead.)

But there's one thing we all know for sure: no one--not even ex-Deutsche bankers--will see the inside of a jail cell.

Come to think of it, there's a 2nd thing we can be certain of: there will be no mea culpas from anyone who for years maligned precious metals investors as paranoid tinfoil hatters for claiming all along that PM markets were rigged.

[DailyBail]

"Come to think of it, there's a 2nd thing we can be certain of: there will be no mea culpas from anyone who for years maligned precious metals investors as paranoid tinfoil hatters for claiming all along that PM markets were rigged."

EXACTLY.