le cartel de l'or négocie /procès Blanchard contre Barrick et JPM

la justice propose à Barrick et JPM de passer à la table des négociations !

héhé ..


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050315/RTICKER15-5/TPBusiness/International

Bon 7 pas le tout mais 7 capital ++ ça >

http://www.kitco.com/ind/korelin/mar142005.html

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What I focused on was how the case would have to be settled because, from what little I know, should what Blanchard has on Barrick and Morgan surface in the public domain it could lead to the end of the financial world in the US as we presently know it. Thus, it has to be settled out of court.

While the mainstream won’t give this development the time of day or serious meaning, the judge’s order is HUGE for GATA and our camp. WHY:

*The Tim Wood’s of the world and Barrick itself have trivialized the lawsuit for years, mocking it as a "frivolous" and one brought to the New Orleans Federal Court by a bunch of conspiracy nuts.

*The judge’s order is a slap in the face to the critics of both the suit and GATA. This is ENORMOUS vindication for our ARMY.

*Do you think the New Orleans judge would order one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world to try and SETTLE a lawsuit brought on my some Lousiana coin dealer unless Blanchard had them nailed, or because the case was frivolous? Just from what I know (in general, not specifics) Blanchard has bombshells to drop on both Barrick and Morgan. No way The Gold Cartel can allow what Blanchard most likely has to circulate in the public domain. God forbid the investment world should come to realize what the gold market has really been about for years. God forbid the public should know the truth.

While GATA would dearly love to have what Blanchard has come across during the Discovery process become public information, I certainly can understand why Don Doyle, Blanchard CEO, will settle. He has spent years and millions in legal fees to take on the richest and most powerful people in the world. His effort to get this far is extraordinary. He owes it to himself and his firm to do what is in their best interest. What would you do (after spending millions of your own money) if the richest and most powerful people around offered you $5, $10, $50 million to go away?

One thing is clear based on the judge’s order: All Blanchard has to do is come up with a reasonable number for Barrick and Morgan and the case will be settled with the amount and facts in the case sealed, which is just what I expected all along.

Who knows if this will lead to other lawsuits down the road. If (when) a settlement is reached, I have no idea how it will affect Blanchard’s class action suit against Barrick and Morgan. Perhaps that will be settled at the same time.

Don’t be bummed by this. Think how far GATA and our argument have advanced since day one when we retained one of the prestigious anti-trust litigation firms in the US – that being Berger & Montague in Philadelphia. This led to the valiant suit by Reg Howe, who took on the world all by himself (with financial support from GATA):

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
District of Massachusetts
Civil Action No.
00-CV-12485-RCL
______________________________________
)
Reginald H. Howe, )
Plaintiff, )
)
v. )
)
Bank for International Settlements, )
Alan Greenspan, )
William J. McDonough, )
J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc., )
Chase Manhattan Corp., )
Citigroup, Inc., )
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., )
Deutsche Bank AG and )
Lawrence H. Summers, )
Secretary of the Treasury, )
Defendants. )
______________________________________)
COMPLAINT

I. Jurisdiction
This is a complaint for damages and injunctive relief arising out of manipulative activities in the gold market from 1994 to the present time orchestrated by government officials acting outside the scope of their legal or constitutional authority and certain large bullion banks active in the over-the-counter gold derivatives markets and on the Commodities Exchange ("COMEX") in New York. The complaint alleges horizontal price fixing in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, securities fraud in violation of Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Exchange Act"), common law fraud and breach of fiduciary duty by the directors of the Bank for International Settlements with regard to holders of its American issue, and violations of the Constitution by federal officials acting under color of federal law but wholly outside the scope of their legal or constitutional authority. Subject matter jurisdiction of the federal claims is based on 15 U.S.C. s. 15(a) (antitrust) and s. 78aa (violations of the Exchange Act), 28 U.S.C. s. 1331 (federal question), s. 1337 (commerce and antitrust) and s. 2201 (declaratory relief), and 12 U.S.C. s. 632 (international banking and financial transactions). Supplemental jurisdiction of the common law claims is based on 28 U.S.C. s. 1367…...
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Chris Powell wrote a stirring recap of Reg in court, who represented all of us in our effort to right a terrible wrong:

11:26p ET Monday, November 5, 2001

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The case of Howe vs. Bank for International Settlements et al. -- I like to call it Howe vs. All the Money in the World -- was roughed up a little today but survived its first day of hearing in federal court in Boston.

During 2 1/2 hours of oral argument, U.S. District Judge Reginald C. Lindsay dismissed two counts of the lawsuit involving securities fraud charges against defendant J.P. Morgan/Chase, and ruled that the plaintiff's method of serving lawsuit notice papers against the BIS -- by mail in English instead of by personal service in German -- was insufficient.

But the two dismissed securities fraud counts were secondary to the lawsuit's substance, and the problem with the lawsuit notice probably can be fixed by a pricey translator if the lawsuit is allowed to proceed.

The judge took the remainder of the case back to his chambers for drafting a written decision on the plaintiffs' motions to dismiss the rest of the lawsuit. That could take weeks or months.

The case was called at 2:30 p.m. in a beautiful and huge courtroom in the opulent new U.S. courthouse just across Fort Point Channel from gleaming downtown Boston. About 30 people sat in the audience section at the back of the courtroom, some of them GATA supporters, including a few who had come quite a long way to watch.

Plaintiff Howe sat alone at the counsel's table on the audience's left. At the counsel's table on the right sat his opponents, nine lawyers representing the BIS, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan/Chase, Citigroup, the U.S. Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Board, and the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Behind them in the gallery were still a few more defendants' lawyers. The defendants' lawyers seemed to be smirking over their having had to come all this way just to confront a mere pro-se litigant, but they seemed to be smirking less when it was over.

About two-thirds of the hearing consisted of Judge Lindsay's questioning Howe about the case and its likely weaknesses. The judge was exceptionally well-informed about both the legal technicalities and the broader issues behind them. While he sought to move the hearing along, he also was pretty indulgent in letting Howe explain things.

The hearing wasn't really about whether the gold market is manipulated. It was about whether there is any basis in law for the suit. Thus it turns on legal issues and technicalities that will interest few of the partisans of gold and free markets -- issues like the very limited circumstances under which the government and government officials may be sued for official acts. But a few observations from this partisan may be of interest:

* The judge had trouble seeing in the lawsuit's claims possible evidence that the bullion banks had conspired with each other rather than with the federal government, other than what was called "parallel conduct" -- their doing the same things in the market at the same times. I thought Howe answered this well by noting that the bullion bank defendants had issued the overwhelming majority of gold and interest rate derivatives and essentially were themselves the markets for those instruments.

* The judge seemed almost obtuse in not understanding Howe's claim that there was fraud in the BIS' forcibly redeeming the shares of its private shareholders at less than fair value when there had never been any indication to the private shareholders that their shares could be taken this way.

* One of the lawyers for the government asserted the government's right, under the laws establishing the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. Treasury Department's Exchange Stabilization Fund, to trade in gold in a way affecting gold's price. That is, he almost seemed to be claiming, on behalf of the government, the right to do exactly what the lawsuit complains of, without actually admitting that this was happening. (Whether he is right is exactly the legal issue the suit seeks to settle.) Howe was excellent in rebutting this claim. He argued that prior to 1974 Congress had fixed the gold price, but since then has left gold's price to the market. Thus, Howe said, any government trading in gold cannot constitutionally aim to fix the price, and certainly not surreptitiously. (I thought Howe got by far the better of this exchange, at least establishing a point worth litigating. Unfortunately I was sitting on the wrong side of the courtroom. We'll just have to wait to find out what the judge thinks.)

* Howe was just as effective in describing the unfairness of the BIS' liquidating its private shareholders without recourse and without arbitration. While the judge at first had wanted to skip argument on the arbitration issue, considering it examined adequately in the legal briefs, Howe managed to get his approval to make one point and then another and another, and the effect was very strong politically -- it gave the impression of ordinary small investors getting screwed by arrogant and powerful people. This happened to be the last issue discussed, so Howe finished strong, the other side weak.

When it was over, the courtroom cleared out quickly, and Howe was left alone at the counsel table packing his books andpapers into his briefcases. Forgive the editorializing, but I couldn't help but think of the scene at the end of the trial in that wonderful movie, "To Kill a Mockingbird," when Gregory Peck, playing the quietly heroic defense lawyer, Atticus Finch, does the same thing, seemingly alone -- and yet he is not alone, but rather watched by the oppressed people in the gallery with awe, admiration, and respect for standing up against the most hateful and vicious power. What I saw today was really not so different.

I won't guess what will happen with this case; anything can. Maybe the essence of what has happened today is that we could have lost the whole case but didn't. (I spent some time later with Howe and his business associate, Bob Landis, and, analyzing the day clinically, almost as a sport, they seemed ready to be hopeful.)

We still may lose the case on the technicalities in a few weeks and should be prepared for that.

But two things:

* Enough of the cursed cynicism that the courts are as rigged as the markets, that there is no fighting the power. We know some things about market rigging but there is no evidence that anything in court today was rigged. We got a day in court ifnot quite yet OUR day in court. And for all its faults this remains a country where one brave man pleading his own case can summon the representatives of all the money in the world and put the bastards in danger of having to answer for themselves.

* The lawsuit is an important front in our struggle for free markets and honest dealing but it is not the only front, and, win or lose here, our strategy and plan will be, in Churchill's words, KBO: Keep buggering on. Thanks to GATA Chairman Bill Murphy and Howe and those who have come to their assistance, we have discovered that the scheme against gold is only part of a bigger scheme involving interest rates and currencies to deprive the financial markets of any standards of value and to expropriate the world for the benefit of certain Wall Street interests and to make the world the slave of the U.S. dollar. This deeply shames Americans who understand it. That is why they will continue to oppose it as best they can regardless of what happens in court. It is an anti-imperialist cause and thus a great cause. And, as Churchill said, "When great causes are on the move in the world, we find that we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on space and time, and beyond space and time, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

That was over three years ago and we are still "buggering on." The judge eventually ruled against Reg – on technicalities only. Without getting into it all, he did not disparage what Reg presented to the court. His basic ruling was against Reg on a legal standing issue. He said a gold company ought to be the one bringing this case to court.

Which is just what Blanchard did. Learning from Reg, Blanchard went after Barrick and Morgan and left the US government, et al, out of it.

Here it is so many years later and "GATA’s Enveloping Horn" (more on that soon) is still on the march. Reg’s heroic effort is paying off in many ways. Certainly, when Barrick and Morgan settle, any reasonable person will know Blanchard had the goods on Barrick and Morgan. They will know GATA has been right all along.

More importantly, GATA is only warming up. As mentioned yesterday, GATA is on some roll. This just extends this "roll." We are going to get these Orwellian creeps and expose the bums for what they are. GATA’s credibility is soaring all over the world and we are going to utilize this increasing credibility to bury the bad guys. We have been at this longer than WW II lasted. No matter. We will stay the course until we win.

GATA asks you to help us to help you by writing your gold companies to support GATA by attending Gold Rush 21. Have you done so yet?


http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/steer/2005/0312.html

et la vous avez carrement tout les mails pour ce faire....