Really fascinating stuff, I've also only skimmed it, but it's very direct and states what we all know--JPM is the King of Shorts. I love allegation #4 (market manipulation). Ahh hell, who am I kidding, I love all of the allegations.

I can't help but feel though, as I'm reading it, that JPM is so big and powerful that nothing will come of this. Likely a slap on the wrist to the tune of a several million $ fine. Let's face it, big business, lobbyists, they make the law. They don't heed the law. Same with politicians that don't pay taxes.

Too big to fail = too big to be sued and found guilty?

Also, remember that the agencies such as the SEC and CFTC bring civil actions and then settle with agreements to not hold individuals criminally responsible with no admission of guilt.  This effectively blocks Fed Criminal Action and probably would screw up state actions when the agreements are put before a state jury.  This is fraud by our regulators but protects the bad guys.

The problem with the suit is it only is that you are only eligible if you had silver futures or SLV.  At the time I was 95%  in silver stocks, which even though they were hurt worse than bullion are not eligible for claims.  Even CEF is disallowed.

silver 39 again. PM are so bullish if I won't see silver 43-45 next week I'm going to hang myself.

against those that went after SVM.  Now that's going to be a good ol' time.

Ta,

At the weekend we are going to hear some good news for PM. Today is a historic day, we will never see silver $39 again.

@SilverBoy - Brave words, wanna back that up? I keep making wagers and no one will take one. Are the Turdites that full of hot air? Gentlemen back up their boasts with wagers.

One silver round (private mint) that we will see under $40 at least once more this year. C'mon - that's not much and I want you to win.

Game?

If this is true than there is hope for my Class Action Suite. Strange that I have not heard anything from them???

Thanks for the post!!!!!!!!

The one that really matters: higher PM prices

In the US of O ('bottom) that's about the only form of justice these f*ckers will be exposed to. They'll get even richer writing books about how they screwed the little people.

Like Lehman's Dick Fuld: not so much as an indictment. And now he's writing a "tell all". Tell all that serves his interests that is.

If these scumbags were REAL criminals (such as producers of raw milk and Non-GMO family farmers),  you'd see Eric Holder's Justus bitchez fly into ultra-heroic action!

Weekend material. I might even print it out.

I have a bunch of legal documents  (unfortunately) I've had to read over the last 5+ years so I'm pretty good at ciphering some of this stuff for a regular guy with no legal background. It's a different language for sure.

(Nothing horrible going on. Just a career ending injury. I'm still upright and it could have been much worse. Therefore, I'm blessed.)

BTW...Thanks T for the legal document. I'll probably swear at it and gesture a bit as I go through it and say things like "Aha!"

" A billion here a billion there: pretty soon it adds up to real money"

Make a few $$ on insider trading. Wow, someone must really have hated Martha. If justice prevails and is equal to the crime, someone at JPM should receive the death penalty!! LOL.

Turd:

I'm not feeling the love from you, brother.

Back on May 23, 2011, I posted three times about this:

http://tfmetalsreport.blogspot.com/2011/05/beware-wopr.html

"For all who asked:

On October 28, 2010, a sophisticated, experienced law firm filed a class action lawsuit against JP Morgan Chase & Co., and all of its related entities, as well as HSBC Holdings PLC and its related entities. The class action complaint alleges that these defendants unlawfully manipulated the price of the COMEX silver futures and options contracts from at least March 1, 2008 to the present, in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. section 1, et seq.), and section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act (15 U.S.C. section 1). Forty additional actions were filed against the same defendants alleging the same facts and violations of law.

In February 2011, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered that all similar actions be consolidated for all pretrial proceedings.

That case number is 1:11-md-02213-RPP. If anyone wants to look this case up, please just google PACER, and sign in. Run a Query, insert that case number, and pull up the Docket sheet. Any document filed is available for $0.08 per page.

The next post is a detailed summary.

* * *

Part two:

The lead Plaintiff is Paul Kaplan, who is an experienced silver trader. Since before March 2009, Mr. Kaplan, has investigated whether a small number of market participants with large short COMEX silver futures positions depressed, and were continuing to unlawfully depress, COMEX silver futures prices.

Mr. Kaplan's investigation included analyzing voluminous market and trading data of COMEX silver futures contracts as well as bid/ask data, and providing information to the CFTC regarding suspicious trading in silver futures contracts which appeared to be de-linked from legitimate market fundamentals.

In January 2010, Mr. Kaplan was interviewed in person by high-ranking CFTC Division of Enforcement personnel at the CFTC's offices in Manhattan. Following his interview, and throughout 2010, Mr. Kaplan has continued to have direct communications with high-ranking CFTC Enforcement personnel, including CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton, regarding the claims alleged.

The plaintiffs' law firm, Lowey Dannenberg, has also built upon the intensive investigation undertaken over the last two years by its client Paul D. Kaplan, and has:

(a) obtained and reviewed the definitive COMEX silver futures trading data set, including
"bid and ask" market depth and intra-day time and sales data;

(b) consulted with a former NYMEX Director with extensive NYMEX futures trading experience concerning the review and analysis of silver trading data;

(c) analyzed the price patterns of the COMEX silver futures contracts prices, and related contracts and commodities, in light ofthe Defendants' conduct, and their structure and financial motives;

(d) interviewed COMEX silver futures traders with hundreds of millions of dollars in silver futures transactions during the proposed class period;

(e) interviewed COMEX floor traders and members familiar with the COMEX market activity in the silver futures contracts during the proposed class period;

(f) interviewed market analysts and other COMEX metals market participants.

Part three follows.

May 23, 2011 11:32 A

* * *

Part three:

For those of you who need a bit of background.

A class action lawsuit is one where a representative sues on behalf of other persons similarly situated. The purported "class representative" files the lawsuit. The class representative then must prove to the court that he or she is a proper class representative, and that the lawsuit is properly filed as a class action.

There comes a time down the road when the court "certifies" the lawsuit as a class action.

The real battle is over certifying the class. Once it is likely that the class will be certified, the defendants usually settle. The plaintiffs' lawyers make a ton of money, and the members of the class get some small change for their status as being members of the class.

There are tons of rules about this. I cannot possibly begin to explain all of it or give out advice, nor will I. If anyone feels inclined, please do get a lawyer and join up with the class. I have provided below, the names and contact information for the lawyers actually involved in the case.

The Court appointed the firm Lovell Stewart Halebian Jacobson LLP, by Christopher
Lovell, as Interim Plaintiffs' Lead CounseL
Lovell Stewart Halebian Jacobson LLP
by
Christopher Lovell
61 Broadway, Suite 501
New York, New York 10006
Tele: (212) 608-1900

The Court appointed the following to the Interim Plaintiffs Steering Committee.
Labaton Sucharow, LLP
by
Bernard Persky
140 Broadway
New York, NY 10005
Tele: (212) 907-0868

Lowey Dannenberg Cohen & Hart, P.c.
by
Vincent Briganti
White Plains Plaza
One North Broadway
Suite 509
White Plains, NY 10601
Tele: (914) 997-0500

Hausfeld LLP
by
William P. Butterfield
1700 K. St. NW, Suite 650
Washington, DC 20006
Tele: (202) 540-7200

Cohen Milstein Sellers & Ton PLLC
by
J. Douglas Richards
88 Pine Street
14th Floor
New York, NY 10005
Tele: (212) 838-7797

I hope that all goes well, and that the manipulation is stopped. If anyone suffered losses, my only suggestion is to get involved, perhaps by contacting one of the plaintiff's lawyers, or for sure by getting legal advice from a lawyer of your choice.

I do not have any expertise on class actions, nor do I want to get involved as a lawyer on this case. My only role here is to point out the lawsuit, and let you all make your own decisions.

Best of luck to all.

May 23, 2011 11:44 AM "

So, that is my take, again.

p.s.: If I have offended you in any way Turd, please let me apologize.  I LOVE this blog, and am extremely grateful for all that you do, as well as the unbelievably important and valuable posts that I read entirely, everyday.  Special thanks to Ben and ScottJ for their recent posts.  DPH,  Shill, Margarita, you and a bunch of others are incredible, too. No disrespect intended if I did not mention anyone!

 

 

Let me just weigh in a bit.  I was trying to be humorous about this important development, but obviously, I failed miserably.  Maybe I should tell a lawyer joke?

Did you hear how cold it was last winter?  The lawyers had their hands in their own pockets.

Anyhow, here is the point.  No law suit is static.  This JPMorgue filing was a HUGE development back in May.  There were many different class action lawsuits filed all over the country.  I urged those affected to get involved, by contacting the appropriate lawyers listed on what I believed would ultimately emerge as the lead group of Plaintiffs' attorneys.  I sure hope those of you affected did indeed jump in.

The rest of the story, if you will, is that these class action complaints rarely, if ever, result in any justice to the affected plaintiffs. Instead, the attorneys gobble up the large fees, and some fine is paid, some pittance of a settlement results, and that is that.  Nothing changes, really.

Maybe this one will be different, who knows?

Anyhow, I will get around to reading the 100+ pages of the consolidated class action complaint and chime in when I can.

Take care!

You got balls man, even if only for saying that :)

I too, enjoy your witty, thought provoking posts.  Thanks for the kind words.  I fully intend to keep posting, and will of course do so when I have something meaningful to add.

I just downloaded the amended complaint, I will get to it later.

Have a great weekend!

I've waded through the first half and the foremost thought so far involves the multi-dimensional aspects of manipulation.  Many manipulation deniers have based their skepticism on the amount of money lost/put at risk by the huge, uneconomic short futures position.  They speculate the position must be "hedged" in the OTC (LBMA) markets and therefore not really "short" at all.  There are huge problems with that argument without reference to the data in this suit, but that's another story.

What is relevant here, is that this suit outlines in stark detail how uneconomic manipulations of the futures market are countered by profits in the options market.  And there's no way of telling how they're set up in the opaque OTC/LBMA side of things.

Add to all that the potential for being short SLV and silver miners prior to a futures market takedown, and the assumed losses related to the uneconomic futures shorts simply don't compute...and may actually be a quite profitable operation when a broad, cross-market view is adopted as opposed to a one-dimensional futures only view.

Hope that made sense.  So far this suit is written in pretty clear language...the legalese hasn't been overwhleming for me...yet.

Just preliminary thoughts...

One last post in this thread and them I'm out for a while.

In your legal and logical opinion, is it possible that since the final JPM silver lawsuit docs have been made public, and they are very specific to go as far as to name the names of the JPM traders involved, that the manipulation just ceases?

I mean, was that it yesterday? Are we done with waterfalls? I still expect volatility as any bull market has, but is the crap over? Will the metals now rise and fall based on fundamentals as they should?

In other words, wouldn't JPM like to stop giving the plaintiffs any more ammo to use against them? Certainly future shorting nonsense will only solidify the case? I know I'm way to simple with this thought process, that's why I treat patients :)

Class Action lawsuits are in effect lawsuits for the lawyers involved i.e. upon settlement, the lawyers get a big pay day and the members of the class each get some small token.

Happy to jump in on this thread, it's in my comfort zone.

The important perspective to have on this lawsuit is that lawsuits are backwards looking, that is, everything is designed to prove what happened, not what will happen.

Having not read the whole thing, I can only offer this at this point.  However, on a good note, a lawsuit is extremely intrusive.  I mean there is nothing like having an army of lawyers descending upon a business, looking at paper.  I used to work at a firm that had over twenty attorneys doing nothing but flying all over the country looking at documents.  There would be dozens of lawyers crammed into a room, scouring boxes full of documents, for days on end.  Seriously.  Page by page, word by word.  Everything was summarized, collated, collected, run into a database.  With today's technology, the volume of information that can be accessed, sorted, processed and analyzed is incredible.

The law firms involved, on both sides, all have an incredible incentive to work extremely hard, like 18-20 hour days, non-stop.  The incentive is simple: for the plaintiffs' attorneys, the legal fees will be astronomical, life-changing amounts.  Think big tobacco litigation-type, billion dollar paydays.  So, naturally, they will leave no stone unturned, and I mean no stone at all.  For the defense attorneys, this type litigation is what is referred to as "save-the-company" litigation.  It means that a loss would end the company, and therefore, no stone will be left unturned in defending against the allegations.

Understand, that the filing of the amended complaint is purely procedural, and only lays out the "allegations," which are unproven claims.  There has been no deposition testimony, which is sworn testimony under oath.  There have likely been subpoenas, but that only gets us to the rooms full of lawyers scouring over documents.  The lawyers are literally looking for the smoking gun, which you can understand will take quite some time and effort, but you can expect, will likely occur.

I could go on an on, and I just might later, but for now, suffice it to say that future price manipulation should cease, or hopefully, decrease, but do not bet the farm on this.  Remember, The conduct at issue was back in 2008.  I am sure that the manipulation was moved to a different mechanism, scheme, etc.  I would not be surprised to learn that silver futures were being manipulated in conjunction with other markets as well, like the OTC, etc.  It just makes sense to me that you cannot isolate the fraudulent schemes to a small market, and instead, the fraud probably blanketed the entire financial metals industry.  So, until this lawsuit gets into the deposition phase, if it ever does, we will just have to wait and see.

Sorry for the long post.  Just ranting is all.

They will settle out of court for a few million and carry on their criminal act..we won't remember a thing..NEXT

They can never cover their short position with profit at current prices.

They are short since $2 silver. Every cent above is huge loss. If they cover their short position the silver price would reach near infinity

Mainstream? I don't see this news on fox, cnn on any maintream site? Most of the sheeple are clueless

But there are never any stories on mainstream media about silver. Nobody is interested in it. That doesn't make the lawsuit any less "on the record" or mainstream among stackers.

A wonderful note in the suit document is that for every $1 the POS decreases, JPM's value of their short positions increases by $100-150 million. No wonder the waterfalls occur. That is a reality for the metals followers.

This always hangs in the back of my mind.  It doesn't seem to be widely known even among us dedicated tin-foil folk.  Whether it even applies is impossible to discern by its very nature...but the potential is certainly there.  From 2006...long before sub-prime impacted the public consciousness and two years before the "global financial crisis":

The provision's most probable use might be related to civilian providers of military services...but when a simple designation of "national security" by the "Intelligence Czar" is all it takes to legally shield a corporation from SEC accounting and reporting laws, there is no way of knowing whose books are thoroughly "cooked" without fear of legal liability.

Can JPM LEGALLY perjure themselves in this lawsuit?  Would we ever know if they could?  Probably not....

Even having to consider a concept as ugly as "legal perjury" blows my mind...

"What a tangled web we weave...."