12:45a EDT Sunday, December 10, 2000 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Not quite two years from its founding, GATA has accomplished, with the help of Reg Howe, what we set out to do: Get into court to stop the suppression of the price of gold. That's certainly something to be jubilant about. But in fact our work is just beginning. For SUSTAINING this lawsuit against motions for dismissal through summary judgment, and then undertaking discovery and deposition, and doing so against forces that control nearly all the money in the world, will cost more money than most of us would see in several lifetimes. And we probably have only a few months to raise most of it. GATA already has advanced to Reg, to cover legal costs, sums that are substantial to us and yet probably less than what the slobs at Chase and Goldman Sachs spend over a weekend at the Hamptons. Without giving the game away to our enemies, I can say that GATA's treasury at the moment contains only enough funds to keep the organization itself going, only enough for ordinary operating expenses for a few months. We did not get into this business to do what some nominally charitable organizations do: build up and admire a pile of money. We raise money to spend it in pursuit of the purposes set out in our charter. And we certainly do not have yet the kind of money that would sustain this lawsuit through a summary judgment motion or even a couple of days of depositions. But we have figured -- hoped and prayed, actually -- that if we could only get an action into court, we might have a chance of finally mobilizing the gold world and the mining industry into underwriting us enough to sustain the lawsuit, the lawsuit being, we think, the last best hope of gold and free and honest markets. Very quickly we need at least a hundred thousand dollars. For the near term, once proceedings begin in the suit, we probably will need at least a million. My guess is that, with that much, we can continue to underwrite Reg's work, obtain more counsel to assist him as necessary, and finance discovery and depositions. We are still making our plans, but I hope that we soon will be able to send Reg and GATA Chairman Bill Murphy on a fund-raising trip to gold-producing regions that are not quite so subservient to Wall Street. Such fund-raising is likely to determine the fate of the lawsuit. As a result, most money raised by GATA henceforth is likely to be spent on the suit. GATA will continue to have its own organizational expenses to pay -- just this coming week we may spend a few thousand dollars to publicize the suit around the world -- but these expenses are likely to be a fraction of the lawsuit's cost. Since we are a federally tax-exempt organization in the United States under Section 501-c-3 of the internal revenue code, our tax return to the IRS will be public information every year, as the tax returns of other educational, civil rights, and charitable organizations are. In the meantime, everybody can help, and it doesn't have to be financially. Individual financial contributions are wonderful, of course, and I am always amazed by them. People from all over the world who have never met us and probably never will meet us send us money -- usually small amounts, of course, but heartfelt. These have sustained us both morally and actually. But we will sustain the lawsuit and have a chance of prevailing only if the gold industry and those who are involved with gold and believe in its traditional monetary functions come forward with the kind of money necessary to fighting the enormous powers we have taken on. That is why any clamor raised with the mining industry and the news media, calling attention to the lawsuit and our need for support, will be appreciated and, possibly, become more valuable than a small contribution. I long have thought that the industry and the gold world could end their persecution very quickly if only they would start standing up for themselves. The bad guys have nearly all the money but in the United States they CAN be held to account. They can't kill us all, and their scheme can't stand the light of day. That's why we can win. CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. -------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> <FONT COLOR="#000099">eGroups eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! </FONT><A HREF="http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/126/_/976427614/"><B>Click Here!</B></A> ---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
