A movie producer before becoming treasury secretary, Mnuchin told a group of Louisville business leaders earlier in the day it was important for him to see the gold to attest that 'it is part of our national assets. in 2004 the assayer was Ledoux & Company, a private contractor (read their homepage). Answer (1 of 2): Internally, it is done annually. 'It's not even the annual funding level for some of our large departments in the federal government,' he said. Exhibit 2. Equal Employment Opportunity. For the other years we dont know whatoffice performed the checks. The gold is held as an asset at a value of $42.22 per ounce. Even then only 5% of the examined bullion was weighed and assayed to determine its purity. The committee was made up of staff from the Treasury, the Mint, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It seems these 6 reports (5 documents) are the only ones currently in existence and the remaining 7 have mysteriously disappeared. Mnuchin said it was the first time Fort Knox opened its vaults to outsiders since a Congressional delegation and some journalists were let in to view the gold for the first time in 1974. Between 1933 and 1937, this increased . However, the documents released are incomplete and reveal the audit procedures have not been executed proficiently. Pursuant to that order, the Committee for Continuing Audit of the U.S. In my previous post, from March 2018, on the audits of US official gold reserves, I have exposed that during the audit procedures of the US official gold reserves from 1974 through 2008, repeatedly audit staff deviated from the auditing . However, a Freedom Of Information Act request Ive submitted in order to obtain all audit reports could not be honored. By using our website, you accept that cookies are used. The audit, which includes facilities, roads, parking lots, fences and utilities that are each valued at $250,000 or more, involved 1,053 sites and encompassed researching, identifying, reviewing . Determined to uncover more about the bullion stockpile, BullionStars Koos Jansen submitted a number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the U.S. Mint. In short, the US National Archives could not extradite the 7 audit reports I requested. Try Army A-Z. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. It basically coveredby 1986, 97 percent of the Government-owned gold held by the Mint had been audited and placed under joint seal. Metal Coins, back to Shortly after I got an email that statedmy request had been received and was being processed. GOLD, RESERVES, REPORT(S), AUDIT, COMMITTEE FOR THE CONTINUING AUDIT, COMMITTEE, INSPECTOR GENERAL, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, BUREAU OF FISCAL SERVICE, and BUREAU OF GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL OPERATION. Alaska, USA . The opinions and forecasts herein are provided solely for informational purposes, and should not be used or construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell any product. *In 1977, presumably, one bar in every fiftieth melt (one melt is approximately 20 bars) was assayed, irregularities were found in two melts, the vault had to be opened twice more in the presence of the Joint Sealing Committee and the gold reevaluated. American $1 Coins, SHOP The last Congressional visit prior to this occurredin 1974. Interactive map reveals when you may see SNOW. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. The First Critical Observations", February 2017. *For all other publicly available audit reports (1980, 1981, 1985, 1986) its very briefly mentioned assay tests were conducted, presumably for one in every fiftieth melt. Published: 22:22 GMT, 21 August 2017 | Updated: 06:57 GMT, 22 August 2017, Honored guests: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (left) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (right) outside the main door to the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox on Monday. Buffalo Coins, American Eagle 312 tonnes of the total is 4 %. ', 'All I will say is that it is freakishly well secured,' he said. Conclusion. CoinWeek: Rare Coin, Currency, and Bullion News for Collectors, it should be clear that the Deep Storage gold has not been audited by professionals, but the precious metals have been verified by imbeciles., submitted a number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, Kolbe & Fanning Booksellers Buy or Bid Sale #3 Today Through March 15, Selections from Atlas Numismatics New Ancient, World Coin Inventory, Lesser Known History of the US Mint in Saudi Gold and Other Tales, Bitcoins and Physical Cryptocurrency in Stacks Bowers Auction. Is the Coin Market Sleeping on Fairmont Collection Gold Coins? Its glittering gold . Fort Knox is used to store a large portion of United States official gold reserves and occasionally other precious . My FOIA request had disappeared, or did it? From 1993 to 2008 the remaining 3 % of the gold reserves stored at the US Mint hasbeen audited I assume. The speculation has also been amplified by the degree of secrecy surrounding the reserves: Since the depository opened seven decades ago, the only time any member of the public has been permitted inside the facility was when members of the media were (however briefly) invited in on September 23, 1974. "The last time anybody went in to see the gold, other than the Fort Knox people, was in 1974 when there was a congressional visit. Inside the famed vaults at Fort Knox, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell held a 27-pound gold bar in his hands Monday as part of the first civilian delegation to see most of the country's bullion reserves in more than 40 years. Based on glaring conflicts among the Treasury's own documents, this staggering amount of gold disappeared without a trace from 1961 to 1971. . Koos takes a sharp jab at how the government bureaucracy operates, inveighing (with cause) that it should be clear that the Deep Storage gold has not been audited by professionals, but the precious metals have been verified by imbeciles.. At the end of Fiscal Year of 2008, all 42 compartments had been audited by either the GAO, the Committee for Continuing Audit of the U.S. Your browser is out of date. As a freebie trip for 4 select political insiders, last Monday's trip to Fort Knox was undoubtedly a memorable one . Same story at the US Mint and US National Archives. Coins, American He tweeted " Glad gold is safe! Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin visited Fort Knox on August 21. The vault can withstand guns, blowtorches, and other incendiary devices. However, how trustworthy is this system of accounting? And we attempted to contact a records management officer at the Treasury Department, but did not receive a reply as of the date of this letter. 213K subscribers in the Wallstreetsilver community. At various times, it has been used to store other valuable items, such as the Declaration of Independence, one of the four copies of the Magna Carta, and the crown jewels of foreign nations. but American gold holdings were reportedly last audited in 1953 (which includes testing for purity); Fort Knox's gold was . Then, something very strange happened in 1983. The gold vault at Fort Knox is "encased in 16,000 cubic feet of granite and 4,200 cubic yards of cement." If we carefully read the scarce audit reports available to us, wenotice the audit procedures were revised in 1983. $800 weekly hand count free roll. At this stage I havent been able to get my hands on any assay report from 1974 1986. He said it took 'quite a bit of time' to get in and out of the facility, and said officials had to cut a seal to open the vault for them. Weve barely come across any independent auditor that saw, counted, weighed or assayed the US official gold reserves. While this sum is unreasonable, a crowdfunding campaign donated the total in less than 24 hours (strangely enough, the Mint never actually cashed Kooss check, and nearly all of the money was eventually refunded.). On the way to the vault, a literal mine field and an electric fence protectthe gold. Text Alerts, Contact Treasury Secretary William E. Simon issued the invitation to Congressmen to inspect the gold at Fort Knox. Fort Knox is in Romeo (R) time. Thats everything we have, or are aware of. Royal Mint Launches First Coin in Myths and Legends Collection, Numismatic Crime Counterfeit Notes Sold Over Facebook, 1776 Continental Dollar Offered by David Lawrence Rare Coins, Grade This 1936-S Cincinnati Commemorative Silver Half Dollar, First King Charles III Coin From Pobjoy Celebrating the Accession, Dakota 1875 $5 Bank Note in Stacks Bowers Spring Auction. Theoretically, if the seal hasnt been tampered with, this is as good as verifying the metals themselves. Sets, Commemorative there has not been anyone allowed access to confirm the gold amounts that are supposedly stored at the Fort. US citizens were required to sell their gold bullion - bars and coins - back to the State. Answer (1 of 2): Who knows but it is rumored that the majority of the gold in Fort Knox no longer exists! 147.4 million fine troy ounces, valued at $6.2 billion, is stored in 13 . Reversal of this policy on a one time only basis came as a result of a series of peculiar events that resulted in a congressional demand for an audit of the bullion depository, and a first-hand viewing of the gold deposited there. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said he plans to introduce legislation next year to force an audit of U.S. holdings of gold. Because there remains so little information about the contents of the gold vault, a lot of theories crop upregarding what's really inside Fort Knox. A second storage facility was built at the same time: . Inside the lonely life of 'pavement killer': Neighbours reveal how 'childlike' disabled woman jailed for Tragedies of Everest: The adventurers forever frozen in ice after losing their lives scaling the world's 'Why the last-minute delay?' & Medal Programs, Tours ', Last time: This picture dates from 1974 - the last time civilians were allowed inside - and shows Mrs. Mary Brooks, Director of the Mint surrounded by gold in one of Fort Knox's vaults, While primarily known as a vault for gold, the depository also held the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution during World War II. The gold at Fort Knox is stored in one of the most secure facilities in the world. In the 1980 report we can read the audit procedures and a few other snippets (well quickly jump through) that help us understand how and where the audits were conducted: Audit procedures included (1) inspecting the joint audit committee seals used to control compartments containing previously audited gold; (2) comparing the records for each compartment inventoried to the identifying information on the gold bars; (3) weighing, from each compartment inventoried, at least one randomly selected melt in each fifty melts (a melt, averages about 20 bars cast from one crucible of molten gold); (4) removing samples from a bar in each of the melts weighed and having the samples assayed; (5) verifying the mathematical accuracy of all inventory records; (6) verifying the inventoried gold to the institutions records; (7) verifying the quantities shown by the institutions records to the control accounts for gold maintained by the Bureau of the Mint and to the central accounts maintained by BGFO; (8) placing audited gold bars in compartments under Official Joint Seal and audit committee control; and (9) reviewing and evaluating internal controls and security procedures. By gathering information from audit reports from 1974 1986 (the ones I could get my hands on) and statements made at the congressional hearing in 2011 well analyze our way through this. Cookies are also used for the purpose of handling our system and services. ', 'I assume the gold is still there,' he said. Fort Knox Internal Review and Audit Compliance. Part One, all golden coins that circulated in the US before 1933 could not have supplied the US official gold reserves to the extent Mr Moy has stated. Ron Paul (R-Texas) says his measure to audit the Federal Reserve, which passed the House last December, would force the first open audit of Ft. Knox in decades. Cleverly located at the intersection of Gold Vault Road and Bullion Boulevard, the bullion depository at Fort Knox was constructed and housing the growing government stock of gold by 1937. The results of the assays by Ledoux & Company and White Sands Missile Range presented by the OIG at the congressional hearing show nearly all 9999 fine gold (see exhibit 3, or read page 62 to 124 from this document). By Patrick A. Heller. The Treasury document says it would cost about $15 million to conduct an audit. The public may never know. Fort Knox is also on the list of these 10 forbidden places that no one is ever allowed to visit. Until 1953, there were serial number audits of the gold and some assaying as I explain but that became costly and time intensive. Two tetrahedron-shaped chips were removed form the top and bottom of each bar assayed. The official story from OIG is that 100% of the gold stored at Fort Knox was audited in between 1974 and 1986, although there is no US government department that has the audit reports. The other two-thirds, however, have not been inventoriedthat is according to my understandingor assayed since somewhere between 1975 and 1986. More from the 1985 report: The audit procedures followed [at the FRBNY] were essentially the same as those followed at Mint institutions except that assay samples were not taken to verify the purity of the gold and the audited gold was not under committee control after the audit. "good delivery" gold bars. Government-owned gold for which Treasury is accountable. Try Army A-Z . & Facilities, Shop All fort knox crisis phone numbers. Coins, Precious 15919 Avenida Venusto, Apt. To access the gold vault at Fort Knox, you'd need to make your way through a network of security measures. It was nothing more than a peek-a-boo glance at the gold in fine Hollywood style. For the sake of simplicity, lets say I have both audit reports, 1980 and 1981. The audits were conducted in accordance with the revised audit guidelines that required a statistical sample of gold melts within randomly selected compartments at the facilities. Single mother faces 170 parking fine after overstaying at McDonald's for just 14 minutes while she treated Man had sex with his wife on bollard in protest after it had been erected by neighbour to stop him parking What will the next pandemic be? On April 28, 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt inspected the Bullion Depository, Mrs. Brooks said. Ron Paul introduced a bill that would require the Fed to manually audit every U.S.-owned gold . ByI forget which date it was, I believe by 1986, wehold on just one second here, I got it. An excuse was needed to break the seals. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles. Connecting thereto, from Thorsons opening statement: My office began conducting annual audits of the gold reserves in Fiscal Year 1993. GAO stands for General Accounting Office, OIG stands for Office of Inspector General. It seems that a portion of the Mint and the U.S. gold reserves were audited in an assay between 1993 and 2008, as you acknowledged. This suggests the gold at the FRBNY was stored so it could be easily transportedin and out of the vaults, possibly through a corridor to the adjacent private vault at 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza read this post by BullionStar gold researcher Ronan Manly for more information on the construction of the FRBNY vault and the connection to the vault across the street that was owned by JP Morgan, but recently bought by Fosun (October 2013), a Chinese investment conglomerate. Kids, Gifts for In response to a FOIA request the US Mint has finally released reports drafted from 1993 through 2008 related to the physical audits of the US official gold reserves. The Facebook predator who lured schoolgirls to run away with him is one of 7,000 sex fiends who offended Do not sell or share my personal information. The official story from OIG is that 100% of the gold stored at Fort Knox was audited in between 1974 and 1986, although there is no US government department that has the audit reports. When I logged in at my account at the FOIA website, I saw my request had disappeared. Engraved Prints, Shop All Gift By the end of 1982 the continuing audits committee, which consisted of BGFO and US Mint staff, was reorganized under the Department of the Treasury, Office of the Inspector General. Donald Trump Doesn't Think So. In 1977 the New York assay office, which is a subsidiary of the US Mint, conducted the assays. CHARLOTTE, NC / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2021 / America's gold reserves would be audited for the first time in more than 60 years if a measure introduced yesterday by U. random nose bleed covid. Do you think it would be worthwhile, at least, to inventory and assay this portion of the Mint-held gold? His analysis has helped fill in the gaps about how much gold is passing into China each year, which is treated tantamount to a state secret by the Peoples Republic. Few people have ever entered the vault,and while147.3 million ounces of goldallegedly exists inside, the accuracy remains in doubt. Paul has introduced legislation that would require an independent audit of the 5,000 plus tons of gold bullion that is believed to stored in the Fort Knox, Kentucky vault. He ought to have known precisely how many pages were needed and presumably where to find them. The last time any gold was removed from deep storage at Fort Knox came in 1971, when $500 million worth of gold was delivered to the New York Assay Office.