IMF rules both provide for and forbid gold loans and swaps

Lawsuits Continue To Pursue Summers After Leaving D.C.

By David H. Gellis
Crimson Staff Writer
The Harvard Crimson
www.TheCrimson.com
Cambridge, Mass.

Currency bearing University President Lawrence H. Summers'
signature isn't the only lingering reminder of his time as
Treasury secretary. This week a U.S. District Court judge
in Boston scheduled an October 9 hearing on a motion to
dismiss a lawsuit that names Summers as a defendant.

The suit is fallout from Summers' time as a public official --
and only one of many suits targeting him.

And one of the motions to be debated at the hearing is
whether Summers can continue to be held liable as a
private citizen. Current Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill
automatically replaces his predecessor when charges
are leveled against Summers in his official capacity, but
the plaintiff in this suit maintains that he is suing Summers
as an individual.

The suit, filed by Reginald H. Howe (Class of '62) in Boston
last December, accuses the defendants, who in addition
to Summers include Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan,
officials of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and
four major banks, of manipulative activities in the gold
market and of violating the Sherman Anti-Trust and Security
Exchange Acts.

The suit stems from a shareholder buyout by the BIS. But
Howe said he's using this primary complaint as a platform
from which to allege price fixing of the gold market -- the
claim that he said implicates Summers. The suit says that
as Secretary, Summers acted improperly to suppress gold
prices.

The suit is being funded by the Gold Anti-Trust Action
Committee, a group founded in 1999 by financial
commentator Bill Murphy to advocate legal action against
the key U.S. players in the gold market.

quot;If we're right, it will be much bigger than Watergate,quot;
Murphy said.

Summers has not responded to the suit, and could not be
reached for comment.

Motions to substitute O'Neill and dismiss the suit are being
handled by the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston.

Arguments to dismiss the lawsuit vary among the defendant
parties, and include arguments about jurisdiction as well as
the merits of the case.

Judge Reginald Lindsay will hear debate on the motions at
the October hearing.

In a press release, Howe noted the timing of the hearing --
three days before Summers is officially installed as university
president at inauguration ceremonies -- heightens the drama
of the case.