Loading ...Fast forward 16 years later. Think of all the evidence GATA has collected since then about market manipulation and the billions of dollars of fines paid by bullion banks for rigging one commodity market/financial market after another. These are facts, not exaggerations. And yet, after all of that, Martin A is right back to the same rant initiated so long ago.
The entire tale seems too wild to even be in a movie script. But first one more MIDAS commentary about Mr. Armstrong written in September of 1999, the day after I returned from Vancouver to meet with Normandy Mining chairman, Robert Champion de Crespigny, who refused to meet with me after agreeing to do so and having me fly 2,000 miles on behalf of GATA.
Talk about dull … the gold price was $1 lower on September 16, 1999 at $255.30.
The Way I See It – by Midas
By now, many of you have read about the antics of Mr. Martin Armstrong. What a story this is. I just returned from Vancouver where he visited often, spoke to many and was highly regarded by the Canadian commentators in that city. He was the man.
He is the man here and in Japan too. The con man. By now, those interested in financial matters know that he had a Ponzi scheme going of the first billion dollar order. It was uncovered by Japanese investigators, not U.S. investigators, who tout how on top of everything they are. What a joke! Recently, when queried about some funny goings on in the gold market, the CFTC said they would know if something was amiss in the gold market. Sure. Just like you had the hang of it on Armstrong.
Mr. Armstrong had so many fooled. He came across as Mr. Academia. But, he was no PhD; he did not even have a bachelor’s degree. His formal training was limited to courses at RCA Institute, an early New York City electronics technical school now known as Technical Career Institute. (Yet, he could call a press conference on why gold is so bearish and the press would fall all over him – we hold a press conference to logically explain why the gold market is manipulated and no one shows up).
From what I can tell from press reports, Martin and his cronies at Republic Securities were taking new money from investors to pay interest due to old investors. A classic Ponzi by a Ponzi. M.A. was not shy about talking his book. A renowned commodity trader with a more renowned ego, Armstrong, with all his brilliance, got most of the markets all wrong in recent times. He was long bonds, short oil, short yen and short gold. Three out of the 4 were the worst trades one can imagine. Bonds have gone straight down this year, oil and yen straight up. The only winner has been gold and it only kerplunked right after the BOE announcement on May 7.
This is where it gets interesting. That is when he took on GATA, telling us that gold was going to $200 and our theories of manipulation were gaga. We were such misguided souls, said he. That is also when the lease rates started to rise from a normal one per cent to as high as 5.08 per cent for one month gold just yesterday. Then in June, out of nowhere, he came out with a vitriolic, public attack on GATA for our beliefs. With all the pressure he must have been under, why would he take the time to attack us? That attack was circulated all over the world…
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/Pfv1.cfm?pfvID=388&SearchParam=Armstrong
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Martin A’s dealings were with Republic Bank. As part of the movie bit, three more months later…
Edmond Safra dies in fire December 3, 1999: 2:57 p.m. ET
Billionaire Banker killed on verge of selling his Republic National Bank to HSBC
NEW YORK (CNNfn) – Billionaire banker Edmond Safra was killed early Friday when fire engulfed his Monte Carlo home, following an attack by two hooded men, according to Monaco’s official press office.
http://money.cnn.com/1999/12/03/worldbiz/safra/
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Anyway, after that Martin A went to jail the next month and for the entire gold bull market, finally let out on the exact month the price topped out in September of 2011. What a story…
Jailed Adviser Is Sentenced and Fined in Fraud Case
By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED
Published: April 11, 2007
Martin A. Armstrong, the financial adviser who has spent seven years in jail on a contempt-of-court charge, was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison for running what prosecutors said was a $3 billion Ponzi scheme.
Judge John F. Keenan of the Federal District Court in Manhattan also ordered Mr. Armstrong, 57, to pay $80 million — plus one dollar — in restitution to the fraud victims.
“Every criminal case is a human tragedy,” Judge Keenan said at the hearing yesterday. “But yours is particularly sad.”
Mr. Armstrong, the founder of Princeton Economics International, has been held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan since January 2000. He has been jailed for contempt of court because he has not produced $15 million in gold and antiquities, as well as documents, stemming from a related civil suit filed by the government. It is one of the longest-running charges of contempt in American legal history…
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/business/11wall.html?ref=topics&_r=0