You are here

In Blanchard case, Barrick confesses to gold price suppression scheme

Section: Daily Dispatches

1:19a ET Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Barrick Gold has confessed that it and its bullion banker, JP Morgan Chase amp; Co., are the direct agents of the central banks in the international control of the gold price.

Barrick's confession was filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans as part of a legal maneuver to gain dismissal of the federal anti-trust lawsuit brought against it and Morgan Chase by Blanchard amp; Co., the New Orleans-based coin and bullion dealer. Barrick moved to dismiss the Blanchard lawsuit on the grounds that the suit had failed to include as defendants some indispensable parties whose vital interests are at stake, the central banks; that the central banks, having what is called sovereign immunity against suit, simply could not be included in the suit; and that the suit therefore had to be dismissed.

Barrick's confessional motion was dated February 28 and is headlined Memorandum in support of motion to dismiss for failure to join indispensable parties:

http://www.gata.org/files/BarrickConfessionMotionToDismiss.pdf

Fortunately, the judge hearing the Blanchard lawsuit, Helen G. Berrigan, denied Barrick's motion two weeks ago after an exchange in open court with one of the company's many lawyers, Mark D. Wegener. That exchange is appended here. The judge concluded that Barrick's motion to dismiss argued in effect that an illegal action involving so many powerful entities from all around the world is going to be immune from being challenged.

That's, as we say, not acceptable, Judge Berrigan said, denying Barrick's dismissal motion.

Barrick and Morgan still have other dismissal motions pending and much remains to be done before they can be held fully accountable for themselves in court and compelled to produce evidence and testimony.

But it is thrilling that Judge Berrigan has indicated that she will not be intimidated by all the (fiat) money and power in the world, and thrilling that one of the issues on which GATA consultant Reg Howe's trail-blazing federal lawsuit against the same conspiracy foundered -- sovereign immunity -- has been removed as an obstacle in the Blanchard case because of the much smaller number of defendants.

Building on the Howe case, the Blanchard case has an ever-improving chance of bringing transparency and honesty to the gold market and to national economic policy generally. GATA supports the Blanchard suit and urges its friends to inform the mining industry about the suit's encouraging progress.

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

* * *

BFrom oral argument in
Blanchard Co. et al. v. Barrick Gold Corp. and JP Morgan Chase Co./B

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
Judge Helen G. Berrigan, presiding
May 29, 2003

The Court: How would those contracts be challenged, under your theory that everybody has to be involved? Because, how do you get jurisdiction over everybody?

Mr. Wegener: You can't.

The Court: So you all can just tally-ho and do anti-competitive stuff? ... So the idea is, if you get enough people involved in a monopoly, then you're immune from litigation?

Mr. Wegener: Well, I don't think it's quite that. ...

The Court: And you're saying it's not possible to bring everybody in?

Mr. Wegener: Yeah, I think you can't bring the central banks in because they're immune. You can't bring in all the bullion banks, because they're beyond the jurisdiction of the court. ...

The Court: I mean, if what you say is correct, then it sounds like the legal remedy is for individual plaintiffs, like, say, Blanchard, to go to the United States court, like he's done here, and go after J.P. Morgan. And then wherever these other entities are, to go to those courts, in those countries, in those locales, and try to seek the same relief. ... But I'm very much troubled by the end result of your argument, which is to the effect that if an outfit is large enough and involves enough people, enough entities, then they can kind of do what they want. ... But I just don't find it possible to think that something could -- if, in fact there is an anti-trust violation going on here -- that because it involves so many powerful entities from all around the world, therefore it's going to be immune from being challenged. That's, as we say, not acceptable.

Mr. Wegener: Uh-huh.

The Court: If that's the logical result of your argument, then I'm going to have to find some other way to deal with it than that.

* * *

Judge Berrigan denied Barrick's motion to dismiss.

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

To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:

gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:

gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

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

RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS

Free sites:

a href=http://www.jsmineset.comhttp://www.jsmineset.com/a

a href=http://www.mineweb.com/http://www.mineweb.com//a

a href=http://www.gold-eagle.com/http://www.gold-eagle.com//a

a href=http://www.kitco.com/http://www.kitco.com//a

a href=http://www.usagold.com/http://www.usagold.com//a

a href=http://www.GoldSeek.com/http://www.GoldSeek.com//a

a href=http://www.goldenbar.com/http://www.goldenbar.com//a

a href=http://www.silver-investor.comhttp://www.silver-investor.com/a

a href=http://www.thebulliondesk.com/http://www.thebulliondesk.com//a

a href=http://www.sharelynx.nethttp://www.sharelynx.net/a

a href=http://www.mininglife.com/http://www.mininglife.com//a

a href=http://www.financialsense.comhttp://www.financialsense.com/a

a href=http://www.goldensextant.comhttp://www.goldensextant.com/a

a href=http://www.goldismoney.info/index.htmlhttp://www.goldismoney.info/index....

a href=http://www.depression2.tvhttp://www.depression2.tv/a

a href=http://moneyfiles.org/http://moneyfiles.org//a

a href=http://www.minersmanual.com/minernews.htmlhttp://www.minersmanual.com/mi...

a href=http://www.a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com/euro-vs-dollar.htmlhttp://ww...

Subscription site:

a href=http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/http://www.lemetropolecafe.com//a

Eagle Ranch discussion site:

a href=http://os2eagle.net/checksum.htmhttp://os2eagle.net/checksum.htm/a

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

COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS

Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave.
Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com

Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net

Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkwa
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
a href=http://www.gloomdoom.comhttp://www.gloomdoom.com/a
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com

Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com

Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
a href=http://www.milesfranklin.comhttp://www.milesfranklin.com/a
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel

Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com

Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
a href=http://www.buycoin.comhttp://www.buycoin.com/a
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
figoldstein@buycoin.com

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

HOW TO HELP GATA

If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.

By check:

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA

By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:

a href=http://www.gata.org/creditcard.htmlhttp://www.gata.org/creditcard.html/a

By GoldMoney:

a href=http://www.GoldMoney.comhttp://www.GoldMoney.com/a
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L

Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled quot;GATA.quot;

GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.