As controversy and scandal continues to plague the LBMA and banks affiliated with the bullion trading cartel, the Eurasian Alliance is pushing for the creation of a new bullion trading system that offers a new pricing infrastructure to help facilitate emerging markets.
The most recent scandal at the LBMA includes the criminal conviction of former Board Member and JP Morgan Chase Managing Director Michael Nowak.
JP Morgan Chase is one of the largest private custodians of gold and other precious metals in the world for both private investors and many governments.
In managed vaults located in London, New York and Singapore, the bank reportedly holds gold valued in the tens of billions of dollars. (Bloomberg)
In 2020, as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, JP Morgan Chase entered into an agreement with the government that they operated two distinct schemes of fraud.
The first fraud scheme that JP Morgan Chase admitted to operating involved tens of thousands of documented futures trades for silver and gold contracts across the various markets that JP Morgan Chase participated in.
The second fraud scheme involved thousands of instances of unlawful trading in the markets for U.S. Treasury futures contracts and in the secondary (cash) market for U.S. Treasury notes and bonds.
JP Morgan Chase paid a record fine of close to one billion dollars to the SEC to settle the case. Criminal charges were brought separately against numerous executives and directors, including Nowak, which led to his resignation as an LBMA Board Member.
During the criminal trial, prosecutors proved that Nowak, along with a group of other senior executive within the precious metals trading desk routinely spoofed orders and manipulated the prices of commodities across global trading markets. (BullionStar)
Nowak helped to provide the bank with significant profits by spoofing precious metals trades along with a handful of other senior executives who have also been convicted, pled guilty or are still awaiting trial.
Several investigations into the Precious Metals Trading Desk that began during the previous decade failed to find any wrongdoing at the time leading to some speculation about corruption within the ranks of the SEC and other regulatory agencies responsible for oversight of trading practices.
Since the year 2000, JP Morgan Chase has paid more than $36 billion in fines for violating banking laws in the United States. (GoodJobsFirst)
In recent years, JP Morgan Chase has admitted to being a criminal enterprise which has bilked millions from investors and governments by manipulating the prices of both commodities and US Treasury Bonds.
A similar spoofing ring was also operating at Deutsche Bank from at least 2007 until 2015 which resulted in criminal convictions and prison sentences for several. (Justice.gov)
Executives from Bank of America / Merrill Lynch were recently convicted in a separate spoofing scheme that operated from at least 2008 until 2014.
Numerous other traders and executives from various investment banks have pled guilty to similar charges related to manipulating the prices of gold, silver and platinum since 2015.
While numerous key individuals have been brought to justice, the leaders of these organizations continue to be rewarded with gigantic bonuses for operating criminal enterprises that helped to manipulate the world economy into a recession.
These are just a few examples of how widespread the corruption that has become integrated into the corporate bureaucracy that helps to justify the creation of an alternative market for precious metals.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Finance from Russia forwarded a proposed new international standard for the precious metals market that would normalize the functioning of the industry.