The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee was organized in January 1999 as a Delaware corporation to advocate and undertake litigation against illegal collusion to control the price and supply of certain financial securities, particularly securities involving gold. The committee arose from essays by Bill Murphy, a financial commentator, and by Chris Powell, a newspaper editor in Connecticut, published at Murphy's Internet site, www.lemetropolecafe.com [1].
Murphy's essays reported evidence of collusion among financial institutions to control the price of gold. Powell, whose newspaper had been involved in antitrust litigation, replied with an essay proposing that gold interests should act on Murphy's essays by bringing suit against the financial institutions involved in the collusion against gold.
The response to these essays from gold interests throughout the world was so favorable that the committee was formed. Murphy is chairman and Powell is secretary/treasurer.
GATA seeks to disclose and publicize the huge speculative short positions in gold taken by financial institutions and bullion banks. GATA believes that 10,000 tons of gold or more have been sold short by these speculators, even as yearly mine supply of gold is only about 2,500 tons. When we are able to show how the gap between gold demand and mine supply is being filled largely by dishoarding of central bank gold reserves, investors may buy gold in quantity, knowing the supply gap is too large to close without causing a substantial rise in the price of gold. Then the gold price suppression scheme will be over.