statism watch

Now where oh where could it have all possibly been shipped to? Did it leave in Rick Mercer’s pockets? Oh, it’s a big mystery…

Flashback: Bullion and Bandits: The Improbable Rise and Fall of E-Gold | Has the Mint’s gold vanished? | Bank crisis spawns new kind of gold rush | Gold Tops $1,000, First Time Since March as Recession Deepens | Manipulation Of Gold And Silver Prices Further Exposed | Analysts Predict Hyper-Inflation To Push Gold To $2000, Oil to $300 | Ottawa warns on gold-backed Web trades

Bruce Campion-Smith, Toronto Star
June 9, 2009

Canada’s money-makers can’t find tens of millions in precious metals that are shown on the books

OTTAWA – The mint’s missing stock of precious metals is worth tens of millions of dollars, the Star has learned.

While officials at the Royal Canadian Mint have not publicly released a value, insiders have confirmed that auditors are trying to track precious metals, believed to be gold, worth in the “double digits” of millions.

At today’s prices, $10 million worth of gold would weigh more than 250 kilograms.

An external audit, launched in early March, is trying to reconcile the mint’s records with the physical stocks of gold, silver, platinum and palladium, the four precious metals used by the Crown corporation in its production of coins and collector sets.

Mint officials remain confident that bookkeeping errors are to blame. But they haven’t ruled out theft and some at the institution now believe a police probe is inevitable if the review – due to be released in two weeks – is unable to provide good answers.

Given the high value of the missing metals, NDP MP Thomas Mulcair said yesterday that mint staff should be calling on police to immediately launch a criminal investigation.

“There’s no possible way to explain the loss of tens of millions of dollars through simple administrative or bureaucratic foul-ups and missteps,” he said in an interview.

He faulted the Conservative government for not being more forthcoming about the controversy.

“People understand that mistakes happen … but they tried to dismiss the whole thing from the beginning,” said Mulcair (Outremont). “Well, if there’s tens of millions of dollars missing, there’s clearly lots to worry about… This is a really serious amount of money and it deserves really serious attention.”

Liberal MP Joe Volpe (Eglinton—Lawrence) said the mint’s international reputation – it produces coins for at least 12 other nations – is taking a battering each day the probe drags on with the prospect security may have been breached.

“How long does it take for this government to figure out what is going on?” Volpe said. “Either money is running out the door or they have a serious problem making two and two add up to four.”

In fact, Volpe suggested the mint and the government already know the results of the audit and are sitting on bad news. “I suspect they have the answer and they have reason for not publicizing it,” he said.

Mint spokeswoman Christine Aquino yesterday declined to comment on the value of the metals or any aspect of the audit.

“We’re going to wait for the review to come out in the next couple of weeks,” she said.

However, last week she said an unprecedented demand for gold in 2008 put pressure on the mint’s internal control systems, which led to the “unreconciled difference” between the gold on hand and the value recorded in the mint’s books.

In 2007, the mint refined a total of 5.4 million troy ounces of precious metals; of that, gold represented 2.8 million troy ounces, or about 86,000 kilograms. The mint sold 278,616 troy ounces of gold bullion in the form of coins, wafers and bars.

Source | See also under Money: Bullion and Bandits: The Improbable Rise and Fall of E-Gold | No one talking about dumping dollar: China minister | China explores buying $50bn in IMF bonds | Has the Mint’s gold vanished? | Chinese economists deem huge holding of US bonds “risky” as Geithner visits | Soaring loonie adds to anxiety over economy | Economist Warns Fed Will Bring About Zimbabwe Style Hyperinflation | Federal deficit to top $50B | Canadian households $1.3-trillion in debt | Digital Money Forum Pushes For Electronic Currency | Obama signs U.S. credit card reforms into law | Credit card changes benefit families, Flaherty says | Quebec pension fund managers boosted derivatives holdings despite warnings | Leaked 1955 Bilderberg Docs Outline Plan For Single European Currency | Banker at heart of credit crisis leads plan to buoy auto sales | Bank of Canada poised to print money to buy bonds | Credit companies seek to avoid regulation, create global debit system | Congressman: Reckless Spending And Taxation Prolonged Great Depression | Barclays, Lloyd’s, RBS join Goldman-Sachs in the black | Goldman-Sachs to repay TARP loan, resume private operations, bonuses, at “earliest time” possible | Bilderberg chairman: ‘Bilderberg helped create the Euro’ | Financial Rescue Nears US GDP as Pledges Top $12.8 Trillion | US backing for world currency stuns markets | UN & IMF Back Agenda For Global Financial Dictatorship | Geithner Plan Will Rob US Taxpayers: Stiglitz | US unveils P3 plan to monetize debt, nationalize banks | Bank crisis spawns new kind of gold rush | Wall Street’s Big Takeover |Financial Post editor: America’s future at risk of ‘inflationary outburst’ | U.N. panel says world should ditch dollar | IMF poised to print billions of dollars in ‘global quantitative easing’ | G20 officials pledge ‘whatever action necessary’ to revive economy | Mainstream Financial Publication Finally Admits that Austrian Economists Were Right | UK Central Bank begins using ‘new’ money | Central bank tactics pushed to brink | IMF emergency fund is doubled to $500bn, Northern Rock bank granted $14bn bailout | EU backs sweeping new financial rules, more power for IMF | Gold Tops $1,000, First Time Since March as Recession Deepens | Zimbabwe drops state currency monopoly, pegs prices to US dollars | How realistic is a North American currency? | All maxed out? 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