A four-year-old investigation of possible manipulation of silver prices may be completed as early as September, according a member of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
“I am hopeful and expect the silver investigation to conclude in the not-too-distant future, hopefully in September or October,” Commissioner Bart Chilton said in an e- mail reported by Bloomberg. “It has already taken way too long.”
The CFTC enforcement division began probing allegations of manipulation in the silver market in September 2008 and since then investigators have analyzed more than 100,000 documents and interviewed dozens of witnesses, the CFTC said last November.
Chilton has said previously that there had been “repeated attempts” to influence prices but he didn’t say whether the probe has found evidence of manipulation. He said at a hearing in 2010 that “fraudulent efforts” had been made “to persuade and deviously control” silver’s price” and that such violations “should be prosecuted.”
Chilton is scheduled to be a keynote speaker on Sept. 21 at the 2012 Chicago Hard Assets Investment Conference at the McCormick Place Hyatt in Chicago.
Please click here for the original Bloomberg article from Futures magazine.
Phil Burgert is managing editor of ResourceInvestor.com. He can be contacted at pburgert@resourceinvestor.com.