Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
While the former member of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Bart Chilton, disappointed some monetary metals investors, he was a hero to GATA for several reasons.
First, he forced the commission to take public testimony from GATA Chairman Bill Murphy and GATA Director Adrian Douglas at the commission's much-publicized hearing on the monetary metals markets in March 2010. This brought national attention to our issue.
Second, he repeatedly gave credence in public to complaints of manipulation of the gold and silver markets.
Third, he conscientiously answered mail from ordinary investors and others.
Fourth, he saw his responsibility to represent the producing classes against the financial class, which has taken over the country and the world.
And fifth, he did what he could to legitimize the market manipulation issue without violating what he understood as the confidentiality requirements of a regulatory agency.
No one in any official position has done more than that during GATA's campaign against surreptitious market rigging by governments and their agents.
Bloomberg News has produced a news obituary for Chilton here:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-28/former-u-s-cftc-commi...
Zero Hedge reviews Chilton's career and criticism of market manipulation here:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-28/bart-chilton-dead-58-after-sud...
Three weeks before Chilton died your secretary/treasurer e-mailed him to try to pin him down about something he had been hinting at, a question the CFTC has refused to answer for GATA and U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-West Virginia.
Could Chilton, your secretary/treasurer asked, say whether manipulative futures trading undertaken directly or indirectly by the U.S. government is subject to the CFTC's jurisdiction, or is it legal?
Uncharacteristically Chilton did not acknowledge the inquiry -- which may have been as dispositive an answer as the CFTC's refusal to answer.
By virtue of his work on the CFTC Chilton surely knew the answer, which would explain why the commission looks away from even the most blatant manipulations of the monetary metals markets. We can only hope that his knowing the answer and his willingness to hint at it had nothing to do with the "sudden illness" to which his death is being attributed. But the world is full of evil governments and evil financial institutions.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/TreasurerGold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.CPowell@GATA.org* * *
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