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AngloGold says it reduces hedges aggressively, and gold jumps

Section: Daily Dispatches

8:55p ET Monday, April 8, 2002

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Last week you could read about GATA in The Wall
Street Journal ... as long as you were reading the
paper's European edition, which carried a longer
version of John Connor's Dow Jones Newswires
story about the dismissal of Reg Howe's lawsuit.
For some reason the paper did not consider the
lawsuit and the gold price suppression issue to
be newsworthy on Wall Street itself, for the story
never made the United States edition.

It's almost enough to make one a conspiracist!

The story from the European edition is appended
here.

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

* * *

U.S. Judge Dismisses Claims
of Gold Price Manipulation

Investor Accused Banks and Officials
of Conspiring to Depress Market

By John Connor,
The Wall Street Journal, European Edition
Thursday, April 4, 2002.

A federal judge in Boston has dismissed claims of
price manipulation a consultant to the Gold Antitrust
Action Committee made against the Bank of
International Settlements, several leading investment
houses, and officials of the U.S. Treasury and Federal
Reserve.

U.S. District Judge Reginald Lindsay said in his ruling
that Reginald Howe lacked quot;standingquot; to bring his charges
that the price of gold was manipulated.

The judge ruled that the claims against Fed Chairman
Alan Greenspan, New York Federal Reserve Bank
President William McDonough, and Treasury Secretary
Paul O'Neill were barred by sovereign and qualified
immunity.

He also dismissed claims against private defendants
J.P. Morgan amp; Co., Chase Manhattan Corp., Citigroup
Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Deutsche Bank AG,
and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.

In his 38-page order, the judge approved a motion
substituting the United States for Mr. Greenspan as a
defendant on one of the counts.

The lawsuit alleged that the defendants conspired to
depress the price of gold and that a subset of defendants
conspired to set an unfairly low price in the mandatory
redemption of shares in the Bank of International
Settlements.

Mr. Howe, who described himself in his compliant as
quot;the proprietor of The Golden Sextant, an internationally
recognized Web site containing commentaries, essays,
and analyses relating to gold, and a member of Golden
Sextant Advisors LLC,quot; brought the suit as a holder of
six shares in the Bank of International Settlements and
1,200 shares of gold-denominated stock of
Freeport-McMoran Copper amp; Gold Inc.

On the standing issue, Judge Lindsay said: quot;To grant
standing to a plaintiff whose injury is only notionally
related to a commodity's price would be to ignore the
general restriction of antitrust standing to those with
direct injuries.

quot;This conclusion seems particularly sound when, as
here, there are many participants in the gold and
gold-derivatives markets who could allege a more direct
injury than does the plaintiff,quot; the judge said. quot;For
example, there are many gold-mining companies and
private investors in gold (not to mention those central
banks with gold reserves) that the plaintiff does not
allege to be involved in the conspiracy. All of these
persons or entities would be more directly injured than
the plaintiff by a scheme of the kind he alleges.quot;

Regarding the sovereign-immunity question, Judge
Lindsay concluded that quot;Greenspan, McDonough, and
the Secretary of the Treasury in their official capacities
are not 'persons' within the meaning of the antitrust laws.
They enjoy the protection of sovereign immunity.

quot;Even if I assume that this suit is genuinely against
Greenspan, McDonough, and the Secretary as individuals,
I conclude that their conduct was protected by their
qualified immunity as executive officials,quot; the judge said.

He also dismissed securities fraud charges against the
officials, saying quot;the Exchange Act does not provide a
cause of action against government officials.quot;

He also dismissed common-law fraud and breach of
fiduciary duty charges against the Bank of International
Settlements and a charge of quot;constitutional violationsquot;
against Messrs. Greenspan, McDonough, the Secretary
of the Treasury, and the Bank of International Settlements.

--------------------------------------------

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--------------------------------------------

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