Malaysia linked to world’s largest money laundering scheme, NYT reports

Asian currency notes are seen in this photo illustration in Singapore January 17, 2013. — Reuters picKUALA LUMPUR, May 29 ― Unlicensed money exchangers in Malaysia had aided the operators of a global currency exchange that ran a US$6 billion (RM18.33 billion) money-laundering operation online, a hub for criminals peddling in everything from stolen identities to child pornography, The New York Times (NYT) reported.
The currency exchange called Liberty Reserve is believed to be the world’s largest cyber money-laundering case and was based in the United States but operated well beyond the country’s borders as well as traditional international banking regulations, providing easy and anonymous cover increasingly sought by criminals to fund their activities, the widely-read daily reported, citing American law enforcement officers.
Liberty Reserve was responsible for laundering billions of dollars over the past seven years, conducting 55 million transactions that involved millions of customers around the world, including about 200,000 in the United States, according to US federal prosecutors who were reported to have announced the charges against the currency exchange in Manhattan yesterday.
According to NYT which cited the charges, Liberty Reserve’s system was designed to let people move sums large and small around the world just by setting up an email address, which did not require the user’s identity to even be validated.
Liberty Reserve also did not take or make cash payments directly but used “third-party ‘exchangers’” that “tended to be unlicensed money-transmitting businesses without significant government oversight or regulation, concentrated in Malaysia, Russia, Nigeria and Vietnam”.
Still citing from the charge sheet, the NYT reported that the “third-party exchangers” would take and make payments, and then credit or debit the Liberty Reserve account, allowing the latter to avoid collecting any banking information on its clients and not leave a “centralized financial paper trail.”
The people who accepted Liberty Reserve’s currency were “overwhelmingly criminal in nature,” according to the indictment as reported by the NYT.
“They included, for example: traffickers of stolen credit card data and personal identity information; peddlers of various types of online Ponzi and get-rich-quick schemes; computer hackers for hire; unregulated gambling enterprises; and underground drug-dealing Web sites,” the daily cited the charges as reading.
“As alleged, the only liberty that Liberty Reserve gave many of its users was the freedom to commit crimes — the coin of its realm was anonymity, and it became a popular hub for fraudsters, hackers and traffickers,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan was quoted saying at the news conference in Manhattan yesterday.

In The Lead - Gold And Inflation Call It Quits - Film At Eleven

After having once again failed at the $1,696 resistance level on Wednesday, gold prices headed lower for a third straight session this morning. In the process, the pivotal 200-day moving average price near the $1,608 level was breached by sellers. Spot gold prices hit an intra-day low of $1,655 per ounce earlier this morning. Silver fell to a low of $31.08 and was last seen trading at $31.30 after a small bounce, but it was still under previous support at $31.50 the ounce.
The principal downward price-moving factors that were identified this week were pretty much of the same flavor as we’ve seen before: improving US economic statistics, and a short-term resolution to the US debt ceiling debacle. On the former front, the markets were treated to numbers that showed a) the lowest level of initial jobless claims filings in five years, and b) the flash manufacturing purchasing managers’ best index reading since March of 2011.
The latest explanation as to why gold once again disappointed today was the one that saw a rise in German business confidence as eroding gold’s safe-haven appeal. Bloomberg News quoted veteran trader Frank Lesh as saying that “The economic conditions are looking up, so people are rethinking about their investments in gold. Equities seem more remunerative than gold at the moment.” It was also reported earlier in the week that US leading economic indicators rose in December at the best clip since the third quarter. A rebound in US real estate and related consumer purchases were behind the metrics.
Midweek wave analysis updates by EW indicated that gold had failed to confirm silver’s rally up to that point and that if prices were to break under the $1,665 support, then lower targets could come into play.   As for silver, the EW team opined that with prices having closed higher for eight sessions in a row up to Wednesday, the white metal was (over)due for a decline.
This (still) being January, the string of 2103 gold price forecasts keeps getting longer by the day. Reuters News ran its own survey of speculative market views and came up with several interesting findings the other day. First, the possibility that gold could reach a record high annual average price was floated, based on the tally provided by 37 gold market analysts’ projections.
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Silver to keep outperforming Gold in 2013 : Morgan Stanley

In a statement, Morgan Stanley however said macroeconomic conditions remain favorable for further price appreciation in the yellow metal.

NEW YORK(BullionStreet): American global financial services firm Morgan Stanley cut its gold price outlook for 2013 to $1773 a troy ounce.
The bank also cut silver price outlook for 2013 by 4% to $33.44 an ounce but said silver should continue to outperform gold on a relative basis this year, despite expected volatility, it added.
In a statement, Morgan Stanley however said macroeconomic conditions remain favorable for further price appreciation in the yellow metal.
The statement said the bank remain bullish on the gold price outlook in 2013 despite recent selling pressure triggered by market concerns of an earlier-than-previously-anticipated tightening in U.S. monetary policy.
The bank expect that very low nominal interest rates, an ongoing commitment to QE3, and a below-par recovery with attendant pressure on the U.S. easing will still combine to encourage investment buying of gold, despite elevated prices.
In the medium term, platinum and palladium have been "distinctly more attractive" following news of planned production cut-backs at Anglo American Platinum Ltd.'s mines, the bank said.
As such, any signs of success in executing these supply cutbacks could lead to more material gains in the platinum price later this year, it said.
"Such a development would reinforce our long-held view that platinum's historical premium to gold would eventually be restored, as platinum market fundamentals improve and investor appetite for gold as a hedge against financial market uncertainty gradually fades as the world economy and financial markets finally improve," Morgan Stanley said.
This year, the bank expects platinum to average $1,715/oz and palladium to average $708/oz.
Morgan Stanley marginally reduced its outlook on copper, aluminum, nickel and zinc prices for this year, while upping its view on lead and tin.

source: http://www.bullionstreet.com/news/silver-to-keep-outperforming-gold-in-2013-morgan-stanley/3908