A Florida-based jewelry maker filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Goldman Sachs Group, Germany's BASF SE and two other large precious metals dealers, claiming that the organizations had been price-fixing metals.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan against Goldman; BASF, the world's largest chemical producer; HSBC Holdings Plc; and South Africa's Standard Bank Group, alleges that the organizations conspired since 2007 to "rig the twice-daily platinum and palladium 'fixings' and the prices of futures and options based on those fixings," reported Reuters.
The plaintiff, Modern Settings, who makes jewelry and police badges, claimed the riggings cost metal purchasers millions of dollars, specifically, purchasers who work with platinum and palladium, which are used in catalytic converters, dentistry and jewelry.
London-based BASF, the world's largest maker of catalytic converters, alone generated $2.95 billion from precious metal trading last year, reported Reuters.
Modern Settings said the defendants illegally shared customer data, which it then used to engage in "front-running" of anticipated price moves, and produced fake orders, reported Reuters.
The London Metal Exchange said last month that it will take over platinum and palladium price fixing on Dec. 1 using a new platform which replaces the system established in 1989 and run by Goldman, BASF, HSBC and Standard.
But the suit said it's too late for the changes, as the damage has already been done.
A report released last week by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that banks, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan "bought metals warehouses, crude oil tankers and other prospects in the physical commodities, then used these businesses to gain an unfair advantages and influence markets," according to The Guardian.
The Federal Reserve allowed the banks to violate their regulatory limits and didn't know how many commodities the banks owned, according to the report.
"It's time to restore the separation between banking and commerce and to prevent Wall Street from using nonpublic information to profit at the expense of industry and consumers," said Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, head of the Senate committee.
