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."