U.S. Treasury Department documents reveal that since May U.S. government gold has been loaned to bullion banks or swapped with other governments to suppress gold's market price, according to the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. (GATA).

The documents were publicized by the Freemarket Gold & Money Report, edited by GoldMoney founder James Turk, a consultant to GATA.

Until now the U.S. government has denied intervening in the gold market or swapping gold with other governments. Pressed by GATA for an explanation in 2001, the general counsel to the Federal Reserve Board's Federal Open Market Committee, J. Virgil Mattingly, even repudiated the minutes of the FOMC's meeting of January 1995, which quoted him as saying that the U.S. government indeed had been engaging in gold swaps.

Turk writes in the issue of FGMR published today:

"The U.S. Treasury quietly made a subtle change to its weekly reports of the U.S. International Reserve Position, which includes the U.S. Gold Reserve. This change was first made on May 14. The differences can be seen by comparing the report's old format release on May 8 to the new format used the following week.

"Note the additional description of gold provided in the new reporting format. It says the U.S. Gold Reserve is 261.499 million ounces and, importantly, that the gold is now reported 'including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped.'

"This description provides clear evidence that the U.S. Gold Reserve is in play. Gold has been removed from U.S. Treasury vaults and placed on deposit, presumably in the couple of bullion banks the Treasury has selected to assist with its gold price-capping efforts.

"Gold placed on deposit gets loaned out by these bullion banks and then sold into the spot market to try capping the gold price. The same thing happens with swaps, but the vague language in the note to the Treasury reports makes it uncertain whether they are in fact being used at the moment.

"It is noteworthy that this change of accounting occurred in May. Could it be that the gold cartel had to dip into the U.S. Gold Reserve to accommodate the big gold buybacks of hedge books that Lihir and others completed at that time?"

Turk's disclosure adds to recent evidence, including disclosure by the London Bullion Market Association of defective gold deliveries from the Bank of England, that the Western central bank scheme of currency and commodity market manipulation is under great strain.