Clint Siegner – JPMorgan Chase and other bullion banks spent most of a decade screwing clients and investors who were naive enough to expect a fair shake in the precious metals futures markets. It was a solid racket.
Yet claims of price rigging were simply dismissed by financial journalists and regulators as conspiracy theory. The banks’ defenders were bolstered by a 5-year-long investigation by the compromised Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) which ended without a single banker being prosecuted.
Many goldbugs wondered if the racket would continue forever. Fortunately, much has changed over the past three years. Department of Justice prosecutors were able to secure a guilty plea from Deutsche Bank in late 2016.