It appears the accomplices are still quiet.

Regards - VHF

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Silver manipulation claims spark discord at US watchdog

Rob Mackinlay - Citywire

March 18, 2011

New claims that the silver price is being manipulated have prompted a senior US regulator to criticise the agency regulating commodity markets –the very agency that he oversees.

When Citywire asked the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) – the US futures market regulator – to comment on new allegations of silver price manipulation, it declined to comment.

In response Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the CFTC appointed by Presidents Bush and Obama, told Citywire: ‘The agency (CFTC) does a poor job of communicating with investors and the public. When legitimate questions are raised, we have at a very base level, a responsibility to respond as best we can, keeping in mind that there are restrictions on providing trader information to the public.’

The manipulation allegations were made earlier this month by Ted Butler, a veteran silver analyst who is widely credited with forcing the CFTC into its current ongoing silver market investigation. Back in 2008 Butler was the first to spot a massive rise in the silver short positions held by banks which he described in a note called The Smoking Gun.

Butler’s latest allegations were based on figures published by the CFTC each month. Butler said: ‘As much as the August 2008 Bank Participation Report was shocking, the current one is even more so. That’s because we know so much more today than we did back then. We have waited two and half years to hear anyone legitimately explain how a US bank holding a short position equal to 25% of world production isn’t manipulation. No explanation has been forthcoming, nor is it likely to ever be offered.’

Butler told Citywire: 'It is my understanding that my allegations of concentration has been the basis for the investigation by the Enforcement Division that is now two and a half years old, the longest in CFTC history. I agree with Commissioner Chilton that the agency should speak out on this matter.'

Chilton would not comment directly on the new allegations that big banks are short selling silver (selling silver futures contracts) in order to keep silver prices down. But he said: 'I take any allegations of manipulation or other violations of the Commodity Exchange Act seriously. When provided with credible information about markets, I always ask for analysis.’

Last year Chilton hit the headlines when he said: ‘I believe that there have been repeated attempts to influence prices in the silver markets. There have been fraudulent efforts to persuade and deviously control that price.’

In the same statetment he said hoped the CFTC would provide answers to the public: ‘I am hopeful that the agency will speak publicly about the investigation in the very near future.’ However the CFTC has made no further comments.