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Barrick dismisses anti-trust allegations 

http://biz.yahoo.com/rm/021218/minerals_barrick_lawsuit_3.html 

TORONTO, Dec 18 (Reuters) -- Blanchard and 
Co., a U.S. gold and coin dealer, said on 
Wednesday it had filed an anti-trust lawsuit 
against Canadian miner Barrick Gold Corp. 
and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. for manipulating 
the gold price, but Barrick dismissed the 
claims as "ludicrous." 

New Orleans-based Blanchard said in a 
statement distributed by Business Wire that 
its anti-trust suit accused Barrick, the 
world's second-largest gold producer, and 
U.S. financial services firm J.P Morgan Chase 
of making $2 billion in short-selling profits 
by suppressing the price at the expense of 
investors. 

Privately held Blanchard said in the 
statement that it was seeking in legal papers 
filed to the U.S District Court for the 
Eastern District of Louisiana to end the 
trading agreements between Barrick and J.P. 
Morgan Chase, and other bullion banks. 

It is also seeking payment to Blanchard's 
clients for losses caused by the alleged 
price manipulation. 

Toronto-based Barrick said the allegations 
were "totally without merit" and said it 
would vigorously defend itself and pursue all 
of its legal rights. 

"Although Barrick has not had an opportunity 
to review the complaint in detail, the press 
release contains numerous factual 
inaccuracies and defamatory statements," a 
Barrick spokesman said, reading from a 
prepared statement. 

Shares in Barrick, which is expected to 
produce 5.7 million ounces of gold in 2002, 
were down as much as 89 Canadian cents after 
Blanchard's statement, but rebounded to close 
down 20 Canadian cents at C$24.45 in Toronto. 

Blanchard's statement said the lawsuit 
alleges that in the past five years Barrick 
and J.P. Morgan Chase injected millions of 
additional ounces of gold into the market, or 
several times more than the annual production 
of every gold mine in South Africa, the 
world's biggest gold producer. 

"Since the end of 1987, when the 
collaboration between Barrick and J.P Morgan 
Chase began, the growth of global income and 
wealth would have lifted the gold price to 
approximately $740 (an ounce) if the price 
had been able to respond to the normal laws 
of supply and demand," Blanchard's chief 
executive, Donald Doyle, said in the 
statement. 

"If gold had kept pace with inflation, the 
price today would be approximately $760." 

Blanchard said its suit claimed that by using 
privately negotiated derivative contracts and 
concealing additional billions of dollars 
worth of physical gold with off balance sheet 
accounting, Barrick made it virtually 
impossible for gold analysts and investors to 
determine the size and the market impact of 
its trading position. 

The lawsuit further alleges that J.P Morgan 
Chase financed Barrick's repeated short 
selling with advantageous terms not available 
to others, including deferred repayments and 
no margin calls, Blanchard said. 

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