It's the most valuable treasure we Germans have: 3,401 tonnes of pure gold -- about 1,800 euros for each of us. Absolutely disaster-proof, divided between high-security vaults in Frankfurt, Paris, London, and New York. And the German Federal Bank (Bundesbank) isn't looking after it!
The incredible gold scandal! On the 19th of November 2011, BILD magazine reported that the German Federal Bank last looked at our gold reserves in New York in 2007, and has thereby even alarmed the Federal Audit Office. (Inquiries are ongoing.)
A clear breach of the law, leading accountancy lawyer Prof. Jorg Baetge told BILD. "A tally of the ingots has to be made at least every three years." The Federal Bank hasn't done that.
Sloppiness with tangible consequences: The gold reserves (currently worth about 147 billion euros) make up the "considerable" portion (says Baetge) of more than 17 percent of the Federal Bank’s annual accounts. Are the Federal Bank's annual accounts for recent years therefore wrong?
Alarmed by the BILD report, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) member of parliament and expert on international politics Philipp Missfelder wanted to know more.
Involved in talks at the United Nations in New York, Missfelder wants to check the part of the German gold reserves stored there at the Federal Reserve Bank.
According to the BILD report, he is demanding the list of gold ingots from the president of the German Federal Bank, Jens Weidmann.
Missfelder told BILD: "I was shocked. First they said there is no list. Then there were lists, but they were secret. Then they told me that inquiries endanger the trust between the German Federal Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve."
When the German Federal Bank found out about the BILD investigation into German state gold, its head of communications, Michael Best even tried to block the journalist's visit and the coverage in BILD: "Against this background I ask you to understand that the German Federal Bank cannot further support your request for a visit."
What does the Federal Bank want to hide?
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http://gata.org/node/11090