Gold & Silver Manipulation: How Precious Metals Price Fixing Led to Fraud

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Last Updated on: 28th November 2025, 09:54 pm

After the 2008 financial crisis, regulators uncovered multiple forms of market misconduct across asset classes—everything from benchmark-rate scandals (like LIBOR) to misconduct in commodities and futures markets. In precious metals, the key issue wasn’t “gold and silver are fake,” but that some traders used illegal tactics (like spoofing) to influence short-term prices and benchmark-linked outcomes.

Gold and silver prices are ultimately driven by supply/demand and macro forces over the long run, but short-term pricing can be influenced by how the market is structured. “Spot” prices are heavily informed by large, liquid trading venues (especially futures), and many contracts reference daily benchmarks such as the LBMA Gold Price and LBMA Silver Price auctions administered by ICE Benchmark Administration. That’s why most confirmed “manipulation” cases focus on benchmarks and futures trading practices rather than physically moving millions of ounces of metal.

Before we get into the legal cases, here’s the practical takeaway: gold and silver prices are influenced by (1) futures markets (where huge volumes trade), (2) widely used benchmark auctions (like the LBMA Gold and Silver Prices), and (3) the real-world physical market (mines, refiners, dealers, and investor demand). When traders illegally “game” the futures order book or a benchmark-linked moment, it can impact short-term pricing—especially for contracts tied to a fixing.

If you want to track prices yourself, start with our live pages: gold price and silver price.

Gold Manipulation: How It’s Executed

When people talk about “gold manipulation” or “silver manipulation,” the most proven, regulator-backed cases usually involve illegal trading tactics designed to move prices briefly—often around key moments used for valuation or settlement (like benchmark-linked windows). One of the best-known tactics is spoofing: placing large orders you intend to cancel to create a false impression of supply/demand and nudge price in your preferred direction.

What these traders do is spoof the market. So, they will give the market the appearance that there is a large buying or selling interest. Usually, these orders would go to market just before gold and silver price fixings.

By spoofing the market, precious metals traders could benefit from the small change in the market price at the time of fixing. This small change may not seem important, but with the sizes many institutional precious metals traders have, the difference in their profit and loss would have been substantial.

Court Cases for Gold Manipulation & Silver Manipulation

Several high-profile enforcement actions and lawsuits have involved major institutions. The most useful references are the primary sources—regulators and official releases—because they summarize the misconduct, time period, and penalties:

• JPMorgan (precious metals futures spoofing/manipulation): CFTC release and SEC release
• Barclays (London Gold Fixing controls failings / fixing-related misconduct): FCA release
• Silver fixing litigation (including Deutsche Bank among others): for example, Reuters’ summary of the Deutsche Bank settlement

In September 2020, U.S. authorities announced a $920 million resolution with JPMorgan for misconduct involving spoofing and manipulation in precious metals futures (along with U.S. Treasury markets). The primary sources are worth reading because they spell out the conduct and remedies: the CFTC press release, the SEC press release, and the DOJ materials tied to the deferred prosecution agreement.

One earlier headline case involved the London Gold Fixing. In 2014, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Barclays £26 million for failings connected to the London Gold Fixing and sanctioned the trader involved. You can read the FCA’s official summary here: Barclays fined £26m for failings surrounding the London Gold Fixing.

A client of Barclays had bought options on gold with the strike price linked to the spot gold fixing. The contract was a digital option, meaning that the gold fixing was needed to simply settle above the strike for the customer to receive a $3.9 million payout.

On the day of the option contract expiry, a Barclays director of precious metals submitted large sell orders above the market price. The price for gold fell and the fixing for gold came in just below the strike of the client’s options contract.

Today, notable cases of spoofing by major banks have garnered public outcry—with some commentators demanding prison time for those responsible.

A Case of Silver Manipulation

Silver has also faced serious allegations around benchmark-related misconduct. In 2016, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $38 million to settle U.S. litigation over claims it conspired with other banks to fix silver prices at investors’ expense (per court filings summarized by Reuters). Settlements don’t automatically prove every allegation in the broadest sense, but they do show that regulators and courts have treated benchmark-linked misconduct in precious metals as a legitimate issue.

For readers who want to go deeper into how benchmark prices work today, the current LBMA benchmarks are administered by ICE Benchmark Administration: LBMA Gold and Silver Price overview.

Spoofing: Definition & How It Can Affect Gold and Silver

We mentioned “spoofing” above—here’s the simple definition. Spoofing is when a trader places large orders they don’t intend to execute, aiming to create a false impression of buying or selling pressure and nudge the price briefly. Regulators have treated spoofing in precious metals futures as illegal market manipulation (see: CFTC and SEC summaries).

Spoofing usually occurs just before the price-fixing of the assets these nefarious market players trade. And what they do is place extremely large orders to buy below or sell above the current market price.

So, they might want the gold price fix to come out slightly higher, or as high as possible to benefit the profit and loss. In this case, close to the fixing time they would place large buy orders below the current market price. 

In reality, they have no intention of buying, and if the price of gold were to decline they would simply pull the buy orders. However, many market investors and day traders, seeing the large buy orders may feel enticed to buy. 

Their actions could send the market higher if only by a few dollars. But that’s more than enough for the traders that are spoofing to see a much higher profit on their positions. 

Bottom Line

Bottom line: confirmed manipulation cases in precious metals typically involve short-term trading tactics (like spoofing) and benchmark-linked windows—not a permanent “rigged” price. Over longer horizons, gold and silver still respond to macro forces (real rates, inflation expectations, currency strength, investor demand), but it’s smart to understand how benchmarks and futures influence day-to-day pricing.

• Track pricing here: gold price and silver price
• Want the “physical vs paper” angle? See: physical gold vs paper gold
• Thinking inflation hedge? See: gold and inflation

When investing in precious metals, you can diversify your portfolio and potentially build a long-term hedge against certain macro risks (including inflation in some environments). If you’re investing for retirement, you can also explore a precious metals IRA (not just gold): many self-directed IRA setups allow eligible gold and silver (and sometimes platinum and palladium), provided the products meet IRS fineness rules and are held by an approved custodian. To compare providers, start here: our reviews of top precious metals IRA companies.