Subj: GATA - Conversations With Marty Armstrong Before He Was Thrown In Jail.
Date: 1/15/00 6:57:54 PM EST
From: LePatron@LeMetropoleCafe.com
Le Metropole members,
Bill Murphy, Chairman of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee
has served commentary at The Mattisse Table entitled,
Conversations With Marty Armstrong Before He Was Thrown In Jail."
The Matisse Table
Discussion du Jour: Gold Anti-Trust Action
Conversations With Marty Armstrong Before He Was Thrown In Jail
Cafe members:
A week ago today I had a two-hour conversation over the phone with investment
guru Martin Armstrong which was, in many ways, quite remarkable. It was only
a couple of months ago we were almost at each other's throats about GATA.
For those of you new to this story, Armstrong presided over Princeton
Economics International, a renowned investment research firm that was
noted for its Japanese fixed-income clients.
Armstrong was invited all over the world as a guest speaker to comment
about his views of the markets. To give you some idea of the scope of
his firm's worldwide presence, I took the following off the
www.princetoneconomics.com web site:
"PEI seminars are held around the world in Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong,
London, Munich, Los Angeles, Princeton, Vancouver and Edinburgh, with
normally annual events held in Beijing, Sydney and selected cities in
Southeast Asia.
"All seminars are recorded and transcripts are normally available.
Selected seminars are also available on video tape in NTSC or PAL. Audio
tapes are available, as well, normally in English but also in Japanese
for those held in Japan."
Before I get into the matter, here is the latest to bring you up-to-date
about Martin Armstrong:
* * *
Armstrong jailed over allegedly missing assets
By Tony Hagen
Trenton (N.J.) Times
Saturday, January 15, 2000
NEW YORK -- Commodities guru Martin Armstrong was jailed last night
after a federal judge ruled he willfully disobeyed a court order to
turn over corporate records and millions in gold and antiquities.
Armstrong, who faces criminal securities fraud charges, was accused
of concealing items belonging to Princeton Economics International
and Princeton Economics Institute of Carnegie Center in West Windsor, N.J.
Armstrong, the head of the two companies, has pleaded innocent to charges
he bilked Japanese investors out of $1 billion, and spent $16 million of
their money to acquire gold, rare coins, and art work.
U.S. Magistrate Richard Owen ordered Armstrong held for 18 months or until
he divulges the location of the missing assets. Armstrong was taken from
the court to New York Metropolitan Correction Center.
Prosecutors said yesterday.....
[Abridged, DougAK]
... Armstrong has denied the charges, saying he's being made a scapegoat
for the actions of others ... Cohen said he regretted that he didn't ask
Owen to assign federal marshals to accompany Armstrong last week when he
was ordered to round up company documents and assets.....
* * *
My conversation last Saturday with Armstrong followed a long, startling
email correspondence from him. It was sent to me in confidence and will
not be revealed here until he gives the OK. Just for the record and
self-protection purposes, it should be known that all correspondence
between Armstrong, GATA Treasurer/Secretary Chris Powell, and I has
been forwarded to GATA's attorneys.
My phone conversation with Armstrong touched on many subjects.
I mostly just listened -- my mouth wide open most of the time, as the
conversation centered around such subjects as Armstrong's receiving
death threats from the Japanese, the billionaire's club that manipulates
the metals markets, incriminating Republic Bank tapes, bribes paid in
Thailand, the Japanese and Republic Bank, the persecution of his family,
including his 81-year-old mother, and the efforts of the U.S Attorney's
office efforts to deprive him of his First and Fifth Amendment rights.
The scariest part of the conversation was about Edmond Safra,
the recently murdered Republic Bank founder. Marty knew which
phone lines that Safra spoke on directly to the Republic traders.
According to Armstrong, "All the conversations about every manipulation
you ever wanted to hear are there." He said that the problem was that
10 days after he told the feds that he was after sensitive information
that would expose the manipulations, Safra died mysteriously in Monaco.
This is not kid's stuff we are talking about here.
Ironically, Armstrong did not know as much about GATA as I thought he did.
For example, he thought GATA was about going back to a gold standard.
I told him that all we wanted was a fair, free gold market that was
not manipulated. He thought we were just focused on the central banks
of the world that we believed to be conspiring to hold down the gold price.
I told him that we felt that the collusion involved certain New York bullion
dealers with the help of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and the U.S.
Treasury Department.
We were planning to get together to determine some sort of relationship.
He told us that he could provide evidence (tapes and documents) that the
metals markets in New York have been manipulated. Naturally, smoking-gun
information of that nature is of great interest to us.
To give you some idea of how close we were to getting together,
the following is the text of correspondence between GATA's Chris Powell
and Armstrong over the past days:
* * *
Dear Chris:
Still alive so far. I will speak to my lawyer to see if early next week
is OK for a meeting. One of our clients has sued Republic and we are
unofficially cooperating together to try to get additional discovery.
U.S. government has rushed in to try to stay our discovery. We are about
to make a fight next week to try to force Republic to comply with our
subpoenas. The bastards are hiding behind the U.S. government big-time.
I am not sure what is going on. I have been told that the receiver
is now going to try a contempt charge for my not handing in my keys
despite the fact that the locks and security codes have been changed.
They just don't want me out and about. They made me get seven people
to co-sign a $5 million bond for bail. I had 12 people to came forward.
That pissed off the government and they lost the bail issue. So they are
trying everything they can under the civil case for contempt of anything.
It appears that a contempt-of-court can land you in jail for about one year.
After that, higher courts deem it to be cruel and unusual punishment.
So if you tell a judge to get off and exercise your 1st Amendment in a
protest against the government, you go to jail, since while in court
you are not allowed to defame the government. I always thought that was
the very point of the First Amendment: to ensure one's ability to speak out
against corrupt governments.
These buggers have twisted everything around unbelievably.
Will be in touch.
All the best.
* * *
Dear Chris:
If the judge puts me away on Friday, and he is trying his best
to find the slightest reason, I will be unable to attend our meeting.
But perhaps you can visit me in the can.
A client is trying to organize a defense fund in case the judge strips
all my attorneys of everything they have already spent retroactively.
This seems to be an attempt to ensure that no lawyer will take the case.
Brian Code, the U.S. attorney, appears to have slipped up and told the
staff in Princeton that this case will never go to trial. When Jim Smith
asked how that can happen, he changed his tune and then said it will not
come to trial for at least a year.
Boy, this game is so rigged, it is beyond belief.
All the best.
* * *
As I said before, GATA has no clue about the guilt or innocence
of Marty Armstrong. That is not our point. The man is entitled
to defend himself and it would appear he is getting a raw deal.
The way I see it "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Republic Bank would not let us open a money market account when GATA
was first formed. At that time, I told Chris Powell that bullion dealer
Republic Bank would be hearing from us in the future.
The future is now, in a sense.
Why embrace someone who has scorned us, you might say. Well, let me
explain it to the naysayers as best I can. This gold game is a WAR
that will be fought to the bitter end - I am loathe to use the word
"death" as a banker Cafe member calls it.
The FBI embraced "Sammy the Bull" to nail John Gotti, John Dean was
called on by the Nixon go-getters and Monica Lewinsky was wooed by
those out to prove President Clinton was lying. Should GATA use any
less a tactic than our own FBI, the Democratic Party in the US
and the Republican Party in the US?
BILL MURPHY, CHAIRMAN, GOLD ANTI-TRUST ACTION COMMITTEE
Send mail to lepatron@lemetropolecafe.com
with questions or comments about the cafe.
Copyright 1998 Le Metropole Cafe
All the best,
Bill Murphy
Le Patron
www.LeMetropoleCafe.com
The above mention of GATA is as follows.
Bill Murphy, Chairman, Gold Anti Trust Action (GATA) gata.org
Also, GATA related articles can be obtained at the pay for view site.
Bill Murphy, Le Patron, Le Metropole Cafe lemetropolecafe.com |
