Ted Butler "CFTC Has Lied and Complicit with the Silver Manipulation." Also, U.S. Govt. will directly prop metal manipulation - no middleman?

If you have been a reader of Ted Butler for the last few years, you would know, he has believed that the CFTC would eventually do the right thing regarding the Silver manipulation of the price.

Ted Butler gave up yesterday on May 25th, 2012.  He wrote an article saying all the CFTC members need to resign and have accused them of lying and being complicit with the silver manipulation. 

He has pushed people to write the CFTC members over the last few years, asking them to do the right thing.  He was part of the reason why they were investigating the Silver manipulation.  He would write how he believed Chilton on the CFTC board would be part of the solution in getting things fixed and the manipulation stopped.

Last month I wrote about how Bix Weir has accused the CFTC of being formed, just to hide the manipulation and part of making sure it keeps going.

Yesterday an article came out on GATA, about how Obama is bailing out the COMEX and London Exchange directly in the future as the U.S. has labeled them "Too Big to Fail."  As I see it, they did this in part due to JP Morgan's problems and they will now simply and directly manipulate the metals with the exchanges.  They also are propping up the exchanges so all the banks can still gamble with the derivatives and in essence it will be a back door to bailing out the banks and all their bets.   This way the banks can keep making their Trillions of bets on derivatives and when they fail the government gives money to the exchanges and that then is letting the bank off the hook.   Also, is this part of cutting out the middleman of the manipulation and the U.S. government will do it directly with the exchanges?

One thing about that.  Entities can manipulate the paper markets many times over as they print money, but they can not stop the physical metals from being depleted.  I have noticed this last week there were many MSM financial articles trashing Gold, saying investors know not to buy into the gold as it is a bad investment.  To me they are more afraid than ever that more people will invest in metals dues to the currency problems of the world happening.  They have to do all they can to make people afraid of metals, so they keep writing how bad it is.

Here is the Ted Butler article, calling for the CFTC board resignations and accusing them of lying.

Ted Butlers article:

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been negligent in failing to terminate the obvious manipulation ongoing in silver. Furthermore, the agency may be complicit in this manipulation. Worse, it has lied to the public and elected officials. This all goes back to the time when Bear Stearns was taken over by JPMorgan in March of 2008. It is well known that Bear Stearns went under as a result of a sudden loss of liquidity amidst a run by creditors and customers. What is not well known is that those problems were greatly exacerbated by a $2 billion margin call on silver and gold short positions from the end of December 2007 to March 2008. I believe the silver and gold margin calls were at the heart of Bear Stearns’ failure.

We know now (from CFTC correspondence to lawmakers in 2008) that JPMorgan took over Bear Stearns’ giant silver and gold short positions on the COMEX. Up until that time, we did not know that Bear Stearns was the concentrated silver and gold short. Using Commitment of Traders Report (COT) data, Bear Stearns had a COMEX silver short position of no less than 35,000 net contracts and a COMEX gold short position of no less than 60,000 net contracts from the end of December 2007 to their takeover by JPMorgan two and a half months later. From December 31, 2007 to mid-March 2008, the price of silver rose by $6 (from $15 to $21) and the price of gold rose from $850 to over $1000. Based upon the number of contracts held short by Bear Stearns and the price movement at that time, that resulted in margin calls of $2 billion. I would contend that was the real reason for Bear Stearns’ demise. 

So where do I get off claiming that the CFTC is complicit in the silver manipulation and lied about it to the public and to lawmakers? This is easy to prove. On May 13, 2008, the CFTC published a 16 page public response to my allegations of an ongoing manipulation in silver by means of a concentrated short position. The response was based upon silver market activity through the end of 2007, thereby conveniently sidestepping the drama that occurred through March 2008 when the biggest silver short in the market, Bear Stearns, failed and needed to be rescued with taxpayer assistance (Federal guarantees given to JPMorgan). The May 13, 2008 report from the CFTC went into great lengths in explaining there was nothing amiss on the short side of silver, even though the Commission knew that two months before the report was issued, the biggest concentrated short had failed and needed to be rescued by taxpayers. A lie by omission is no less of a lie. 

Why am I bringing this up now? Because I’ve had enough of the CFTC’s lies and its refusal to do its job. As a result of the transfer of Bear Stearns’ concentrated short position becoming visible in the August 2008 Bank Participation Report the Commission initiated another formal investigation of the silver market, this time by the Enforcement Division. This investigation is now 3 years and 9 months old, the longest-running investigation in U.S. Government history. It has lasted longer than most wars. Just as with the two prior investigations by the Division of Market Oversight, the current investigation is a phony investigation. I say this because there has been no attempt by the Enforcement Division to contact me or anyone claiming that silver has been manipulated. It’s clear that the agency does not want to get to the truth. The agency keeps initiating investigations which involve time and taxpayer money, but they never check with the person who has caused them to investigate in the first place. 

Only two of the five commissioners currently serving at the agency were at the Commission when JPMorgan took over Bear Stearns or when the Enforcement Division began its current investigation. But all have received vastly more public complaints about silver than for any other commodity. None of them can claim ignorance of the issue. Chairman Gensler preaches about the need for transparency in our markets. How about some transparency for the Commission? The Commission lied in its May 13, 2008 report (by omission) and is lying now when it claims to be conscientiously investigating silver. See my article from 2009.

http://www.investmentrarities.com/ted_butler_comentary12-21-09.shtml

The stalled investigation has only served as cover for the crooks at JPMorgan and the CME to manipulate the price of silver more egregiously than ever before. I think it’s time to press for the removal of all current commissioners, including Gensler and Commissioner Chilton. Who wants to hear platitudes when a serious crime is in progress? Clearly, the Division of Market Oversight lied in its 2008 letter and the Enforcement Division is lying now. Who needs public servants like these?

Please send this article to your Congressman or Senator and ask them to investigate. Also please e-mail the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with your comments.

ggensler@cftc.gov Chairman Gensler

bchilton@cftc.gov Commissioner Chilton

jsommers@cftc.gov Commissioner Sommers

Somalia@cftc.gov Commissioner O’Malia

mwetjen@cftc.gov Commissioner Wetjen

dmeister@cftc.gov Director Meister

Ted Butler - "Unmitigated Disaster" - About MF Global and CME not making the customers whole as they are suppose to! Also Video of Ted Butler's interview on 11/10/11 about Criminal Silver Manipulation

Ted Butler is someone I follow. He released his take and information about MF Global and the CME. The CME is suppose to make the clients of MF Global Whole, but they have not yet. The CFTC is suppose to be calling on CME to make MF Global's clients whole, but they have not. The Fraud of CME saying one thing but doing another.

Here is Ted Butler's latest:

Oftentimes, the significance of truly historic events is not fully appreciated at the time they occur. I think we are at one of those times with the bankruptcy of MF Global. There’s no question that the news and overall circumstances of the demise of the large commodities brokerage is widely known, but the significance of the event is not yet fully understood. While I would classify the event as an unmitigated disaster on many levels, I have hope that it might result in some long-overdue and necessary changes in the commodities regulatory structure.


The disaster is that for the first time in modern financial history, the main guarantee of the clearinghouse system has completely failed its most important constituent – the customer base. The underlying promise to every participant in the futures market is that your money and open positions are safe from theft and default. This is the very glue that holds the future market together, namely, that all market participants can depend upon strict regulation and oversight to safeguard against fraud and theft. That’s what has made the US organized futures exchange system the envy of the world. Until now. For more than a week, almost all of the 50,000 commodity customers of MF Global are in limbo as to the access and status of their funds on deposit and open positions. This is unprecedented and beyond bad. For these 50,000 customers, it’s the equivalent of discovering your bank just went out of business and there is no assurance all your funds will be returned. (In the interest of full disclosure, my background is in futures, having started as a commodity broker at Merrill Lynch some 40 years ago. But I have not traded futures for years and am no way personally involved in the MF Global mess; I’m strictly an outside observer and independent analyst).


Let me cut to the chase here and pinpoint the real problem – the CME Group. I know I have continuously criticized the CME, even calling it a criminal enterprise on many occasions, but in truth I may have understated the case. Yes, I would agree that the immediate cause of the MF Global bankruptcy was MF Global itself; but what turned it into a disaster of unprecedented proportions was the CME Group. The CME Group was the front line regulator for MFG, responsible for auditing and insuring the safety of customer funds and for guaranteeing those funds in a worst case scenario. The CME failed at every turn. Not only did its auditing fail miserably, the CME failed to step up to the plate to safeguard customer funds after it was discovered that $600 million was missing. This is like a case of paying premiums for years on an insurance policy only to be denied coverage when presenting a claim for the first time. I know that the federal commodity regulator, the CFTC, has been negligent in the case of MF Global as well, but that does not mitigate the CME’s failures.


Of the twin failures by the CME in the MF Global bankruptcy, clearly of more significance is its failure to stand up and guarantee that all MFG customers would be immediately made whole by the clearinghouse system run by the CME. The clearinghouse system, a consortium of financial firms whose collective finances stand behind every trade, has been the main backstop to all futures trading for many decades. It was widely understood by all market participants that if a clearing member failed, all the other clearing members and the exchange itself would step in to guarantee customer funds and prevent contract default. TheCME boasts on its web site that anywhere from $8 billion to $100 billion in protection is available in the event of a clearing member failure. If it was telling the truth, it would seem $600 million should be no problem.


Instead, we all have a very big problem, thanks to the CME Group. Our financial and credit systems are based upon trust and belief. The word credit itself comes from the Latin word “credere” or to believe. What the CME Group has done by not immediately guaranteeing all MF Global customers and positions is to undermine belief in the futures market clearing system. So important is this issue that I am at a loss to explain how the CFTC hasn’t yet mandated that the CME do the right thing. And I have been somewhat dumbfounded that the analytical community and media haven’t been all over this, but there was an article in today’s NY Times that discusses the CME’s failures for the first time. In addition, there was a well-written article on the Internet that did describe the problem and the CME’s role. Please pay particular attention to the comments submitted on both articles.
Worst of all, even MF Global customers who held no open futures positions and only cash and unencumbered assets, like registered warehouse receipts for silver, gold and other commodities, have found those assets under the control of the bankruptcy trustee. If you do own warehouse receipts on silver or other commodities that are tied up in the MF Global bankruptcy, you must run, not walk, to a securities attorney to secure your legal rights to your property. This is not a matter of what is right or wrong, as the unauthorized appropriation of private property is never correct. This is a matter of law, which sometimes is not the same as what seems right or wrong. Please don’t delay. The CME is to blame for all of this, but blame must be saved for later.


If there is any good that might come from this whole sordid affair it is that it may shine the light on what needs to be done. What needs to be done is that the CME Group must be stripped of any regulatory powers it has. As I have long contended, there is a clear conflict of interest in having a for-profit entity set its own rules and regulations, especially an entity that shows nothing but contempt for its own members at large and its customers. The CME Group spends all of its energies encouraging artificial trading schemes, like High Frequency Trading, designed to increase trading fee revenue and not on market integrity and customer protection. The CME Group has just demonstrated to the world its contempt with its failure to stand behind MF Global customers even though it promised to do so beforehand. Next time you watch the CME Group commercial that runs incessantly on financial TV that proclaims how farmers and airlines come to the exchange to hedge their price risks, please keep in mind that the CME just abandoned those farmers and airline customers who were MF Global clients.


One other small bonus that has emerged from this disaster is that the event has revealed as a lie all the nonsense that CME leaders have publicly proclaimed about the integrity of their markets. For the past few years, the smug and arrogant leaders of the CME have testified publicly before congress and the media about how the exchange’s clearinghouse system withstood and avoided the failures of the non-clearinghouse financial system as typified by AIG. CME officials trumpeted the advantages of it being a Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO), quite capable of handling regulatory matters without the need for further government regulation. Unfortunately, even high officials of the CFTC were apparently sucked in by the appearance of financial strength and integrity portrayed by the CME’s clearinghouse system of guarantees and the wisdom of letting it continue to regulate itself. That has now all been shown to be a lie. What good are guarantees if they are not honored when need be? What good is self-regulation if it leads to the wholesale abandonment of the customers’ financial interest?


Fortunately, there is a simple remedy to the calamity of distrust growing in our market system as a result of the CME’s failures. The CFTC must immediately force or persuade the CME Group to do what it has promised and should have done on its own, namely, immediately guarantee that all customers of MF Global are made whole. Let the lawyers battle it out as to who is ultimately liable after all the customers have been made whole. That the CFTC hasn’t done this yet is bizarre. If the Commission delays longer what is now clearly a primary failure at the CME will soon become primarily a CFTC problem. We need adult supervision right now. Clearly the CME Group is not up to the task. If the CFTC doesn’t take over responsibility and force the CME to do the right thing, God help us all.


Another thought in closing. The CFTC’s recent official affirmation that it is continuing its three year old silver investigation shines another spotlight on the CME. The investigation of silver by the CFTC clearly involves the CME, as the world’s leading marketplace for silver is the COMEX, owned by the CME for the past three years. Yet the CME has never said one word about the ongoing silver investigation as it has been content to hide behind the CFTC and pretend there are no allegations of a silver manipulation. I guess that is to be expected from an entity that regulates itself.


I’m purposely confining my comments to the emergency at hand. There is no change in the silver outlook. It is still a crooked market destined to go much higher in the long run. The sooner the CFTC cracks down on the CME and then addresses the silver manipulation, the sooner those higher prices will come.


Ted Butler
November 10, 2011
For subscription info, please go to www.butlerresearch.com


Ted Butler's interview on 11/10/11 about Criminal Silver Manipulation:

Part 1



part 2

Ted Butler Outrageous and Illegal and Obvious Silver Manipulation being allowed to Occur! Says Contact Elected Officials

Ted Butler is asking people to contact their elected officials over the Silver Manipulation!  Says what has occurred is absolutely Illegal!  CFTC is allowing Silver to be totally and completely manipulated in such an obvious and unlawful way!


This article is from Silver Seek and Ted Butler is one upset person over the continual illegal and blatantly obvious manipulation of silver and gold.

 portions of article:

It still amazes me that so few seem to be outraged by what transpired in the silver market starting on Sunday, May 1. That night, silver plunged sharply, by $6 an ounce (or 13%) in minutes, setting the stage for a one-week price decline of 30%. Simply stated, a 30% decline in one week in any commodity market is a very big deal, especially when there was no supply/demand news to account for it. More outrageous is that the primary regulators of the silver market, the CFTC and the CME group, have not publicly commented on the big market plunge in silver.

Let me see if I can put this plunge and the lack of comment by the primary regulators into some perspective. Try to imagine a tragic commercial plane crash with no comment from the Federal Aviation Administration or the National Transportation Safety Board for three weeks. Or a case of tampering with a common cold remedy (Tylenol) that resulted in public harm that the Federal Drug  Administration refused to comment on. Or a stock market crash of 30% in a week that drew no comment from the Securities & Exchange Commission or the New York Stock Exchange.  Such occurrences and no comment from the primary regulators would be unimaginable. Yet this just occurred in the silver market.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) holds that its primary mission is to protect the public from fraud, abuse and manipulation. Yet the public has just been subjected to fraud, abuse and manipulation in silver by virtue of the one-week 30% intentional price plunge and the Commission has not lifted a finger to protect the public. Or even to comment on it. How deep of a silver market plunge would it take for the agency to comment – 50% or 90%?

Between the CFTC (which I still consider incompetent, rather than duplicitous) and the CME (which I have always considered an ongoing criminal enterprise), you would think there would be enough silver silence to go around. But there’s more. It has been two and a half years since I publicly indentified and accused JPMorgan as being the big concentrated silver short and chief manipulator.  JPM has managed to close out much of its short position (at great loss) but still while bullying the market. Yet, in all that time JPMorgan has never uttered a word about being accused of the most serious market crime possible. This despite countless law suits alleging the same silver manipulation some six months ago. I know that allegations and legal findings can be two very different things, but I never thought an entity like JPMorgan (or the CME) would ever remain silent in the face of repetitive and specific allegations. 

There is only one answer. You must contact your elected officials. This is something that I have been neglectful in emphasizing, as a subscriber recently reminded me. Before you conclude that this will be a fruitless endeavor, please allow me to recall an incident that would suggest otherwise. Back in 2008, a reader of my articles took the time (at no suggestion from me) to write to his local congressman about my findings of concentration in the August 2008 Bank Participation Report. In turn, this congressman wrote to the CFTC about my allegations. As a result of the CFTC responding to the representative, it was revealed that JPMorgan was the big short in COMEX silver. That is what enabled me to discover the identity of the big silver short. If that reader didn’t take it on himself to write in the first place, I wouldn’t have been able to draw a bead on JPMorgan and much of the progress towards ending the silver manipulation over the past two years would not have occurred.

Chris Martenson InterviewsTed Butler on WHY Silver is so valuable and Why it will go UP!

A great interview!  Chris Martenson Interviews Ted Butler about Silver.  Butler Explains WHY Silver is so Valuable and how it is used and where he expects it to go. 

The podcast covers:

• Why silver has such a compelling value story
• The coming silver supply crunch
• The argument behind the allegations of silver price manipulation
• Drivers behind the recent price action in silver
• Why price volatility will increase
• The expected outcome of the CFTC’s investigation and why Ted thinks it will be "a bombshell for the silver market"

Change coming To Silver - Manipulation to Ease? Also Demand is Huge - compared to Supply!

I am a big believer in Silver - Also you will see in various postings of mine earlier - I have discussed all the ongoing manipulation of metals - along with charts.

Before I get to the article - I also want to say, if you are familiar with the webbot - then you know they are pretty much on target with what will be happening. Something keeps coming up in the language at various times. What might that be?

Silver!!

Silver keeps being mentioned in the Alta Reports - one says next year Silver will be from $600 to $800 per ounce!! Imagine That!! Compared to under $15.00 today per ounce. Recently in the language there was a mention of silver, it was where it would be $24.00 per ounce one day and just days later - it would shoot up to $350.00 per ounce!! NOW Imagine That!!

Is the above information guaranteed? NO - Do not take that information as gospel - I am simply relaying what it says happens. Of course I can HOPE!!

So, knowing this language has been out there about Silver - I like to see what news is around regarding it.

I found a wonderful article today - from someone I follow and is truly a Silver Expert.

Ted Butler - he has a newsletter called "Silver Seek".

He had some great information today, which is encouraging to me, that the Webbot Alta language may just be on to something.

link to article: http://news.silverseek.com/TedButler/1249414304.php


"For instance, despite a sharp $3.50 decline from the $16 level in early June, no metal was liquidated in the combined holdings of the silver EFTs. This was very much at odds with the normal pattern of some liquidation in past price declines. Instead, combined silver holdings rose to new records. Plus, a number of new investment vehicles buying physical silver were introduced during this period. By my count, as many as 15 million ounces of silver may have been accumulated by existing and new ETF vehicles in the past month, adding to the hundreds of millions of ounces accumulated and taken off the market over the past few years. This contrasted with a notable liquidation in gold ETF holdings, even though the gold price declined in much smaller percentage terms over the same time period."

Above you can read, silver holdings have increased more than gold.

Oh, by the way, in case you did not know - there is actually less Silver in the World than there is Gold!! Also Silver is used for many more applications than gold is. Silver is an industrial metal besides an investment metal.

"In addition, Silver Eagle sales from the US Mint have accelerated over the past two months, with July recording the second largest monthly sales of the year. Gold Eagle sales, while still very strong for the year, recorded the second lowest monthly sales for the year in July. The Mint is on a pace that could result in more than 28 million ounces of Silver Eagles being produced and sold this year, the most in history and roughly three times larger than the average for the past decade. To put this number in perspective, the 28 million ounces potentially consumed in new Silver Eagles would represent more than 75% of all the silver mined annually in the US, the world’s eighth largest producer. This takes silver off the market and tightens physical supply. For comparison purposes, Gold Eagle sales, on the current pace, will consume 15% of gold mine production in the US, the world’s fourth largest producer."

As you can read - almost all the silver produced is consumed, compared to Gold - only 15% is consumed.

"Now there are promising signs of change, the most important being the appointment of a dynamic new chairman at the CFTC, Gary Gensler. He brings to the Commission something rarely observed in the history of the CFTC, market experience and a sense of purpose. As I indicate in this new interview with King World News, Click Here

I think Gensler is already the best chairman in CFTC history, even though he has been on the job for little more than 2 months. I think he represents the best chance ever that the CFTC will terminate the decades-long silver manipulation. Someday, I may have to eat my words, but that day is not today. Let me explain why."

Since there is a new Chairman, Ted Butler feels there is a good chance the manipulation will end. He has a very good, but somewhat complicated explanation at the link. The explanation is detailed, so I would advice going to the link to read it completely.

The long and short of it is, hopefully with the new chairman - the obvious manipulation which has been ignored for decades will now come to an end. The manipulation is at that point where only fools involved with the manipulation can deny it. The data has gotten overwhelming and obvious. I am reinserting graphs here, that I have in a post farther down on the page.

With the new chairman and knowing almost all the silver is being taken that is produced in the U.S. - then it does not seem unfeasible for Silver to shoot to the moon.

We can only Hope and Watch the market.

Have you positioned yourself for the manipulation of the metals market to possibly and finally come to an end?