Frankfurter Allgemeine on leak about euro intervention

10:30a EDT Thursday, September 28, 2000

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

There's a lot to read into the following Dow Jones
dispatch from Frankfurt today.

It seems to suggest more active resentment by
European central banks of the manipulation of
markets by the U.S. investment houses.

It also suggests what GATA has noted before: a
certain familiarity between European central
banking sources and the Frankfurter Allgemeine.
And of course the primary culprit is none other
than Citibank, a big gold derivatives player and
lately home of former U.S. Treasury Secretary
Robert Rubin.

Does anyone really still think that markets are
not manipulated at the highest levels of
governments and their pals in high finance?

Let's hope this gets even nastier soon.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

* * *

US Hedge Fund Knew Before
G7 Forex Intervention: Paper

FRANKFURT, Sept. 28 (Dow Jones) -- The European
Central Bank's intention to intervene in the foreign
exchange market, together with the U.S. Federal
Reserve, the Bank of Japan, and other central banks
of the Group of Seven leading industrial countries,
was known several hours ahead of the operation,
market participants in Frankfurt said, German daily
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported Thursday.

According to the paper, a leak in one of the central
banks outside the euro zone prompted Citibank, a
unit of Citigroup Inc., on behalf of a U.S. hedge
fund to start buying euros early Friday. The euro
rose to slightly above $0.86 in early European trade
Friday.

Citibank's subsequent sale of euros was preventing
the euro from rising more than slightly above $0.90
during the intervention that started around 1100
GMT, Frankfurt banking sources said, according to
the paper. The euro subsequently rose to $0.9040
before falling back to the mid-$0.88s.

Banking sources attributed the leak to a possible
connection between the hedge fund, Citibank, and the
Fed, FAZ said. Robert Rubin, former U.S. Treasury
Secretary, is currently Citigroup's co-chairman.

According to the paper, the ECB and the Deutsche
Bundesbank Tuesday declined to comment on the market
talk.

Citibank spokesman Stephen Goldman also said the
bank won't comment on its transactions in the
foreign exchange market, the paper said.