Categories: Base Metals / General Market Commentary / Precious Metals
Topics: General Base Metals / General Market Commentary / General Precious Metals

‘3, 2, 1, Boom’ -- Silver-Fixing Allegations in a Dozen Chats

Dec. 12, 2016

'3, 2, 1, Boom’ -- Silver-Fixing Allegations in a Dozen Chats

-- Court documents detail private chats between bank traders

-- Lawsuit alleges widespread rigging of precious metal market

A cache of documents from Deutsche Bank AG include what a group of silver investors claim is a “smoking gun”: private electronic chats showing traders from numerous banks conspiring to rig prices from 2007 to 2013, according to a court filing in New York last week.

The bank provided the documents to the investors after settling a lawsuit accusing it of rigging markets in precious-metals. As part of the accord in April, the bank paid $38 million and turned over more than 350,000 pages of documents and 75 audio tapes. The investors now want to use the chats to win permission from a judge to file a new complaint against other banks.

The traders aren’t named in the chats now in court filings; instead, they are identified by their bank, such as UBS Trader A. The chats have not been edited for spelling or grammar:

In Chats, Silver ‘Mafia’ Traders Flexed Muscle, Drew Blades

UBS and Deutsche Bank silver traders agreed to follow the “11 o’clock” rule where they would short silver at 11 a.m., timing their trades with a countdown sequence, according to court papers. From a Feb. 8, 2011 chat:

“Here we go here we go,” wrote a Deutsche Bank trader.

A UBS trader: “gogogogogoggog.”

“Dude...near the high,” the Deutsche trader responded. “Im gonna ramp it...that my plan...u?”

“If 53 breaks imam go guns blazing,” the UBS trader wrote.

To continue reading please click link https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-12/-3-2-1-boom-silver-fixing-allegations-in-a-dozen-chats