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Is Tony Soprano Controlling Gas Prices?

Attorney General suggests the Mob may be dabbling in energy markets

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

April 25, 2008

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Are criminal elements controlling and manipulating the energy markets?

It's not a question posed by a paranoid blogger, but by the Attorney General of the United States.

In a speech in Washington this week, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said he not only believes its possible, but that in some instances criminals have been successful in their efforts to get inside the international energy market, where the price of oil and other resources are set on a daily basis.

Speaking to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Mukasey said federal law enforcement agencies produced a classified threat assessment that raised the issue and outlined its ramifications. In the past, he said, organized criminal elements have tried – and occasionally succeeded – in gaining undue influence within the international financial system.

He said criminals had used money to influence and corrupt financial service providers and government officials.

Who exactly are these criminals? Mukasey didn't name names, but suggests it could be a combination of profit-motivated gangsters and ideologically-driven terrorists. The mobsters just want to make a buck, while the terrorists want to wreck the U.S. economy.

He said these alliances control "significant positions" in the global energy and strategic materials markets.

"They are expanding their holdings in these sectors, which corrupts the normal functioning of these markets and may have a destabilizing effect on U.S. geopolitical interests," he said.

Though he did not make a direct linkage, Mukasey's warning comes amid a backdrop of surging world oil prices that have driven U.S. gasoline prices to record highs. At the same time, gold and other strategic metals have hit records in recent weeks, as have food commodities such as corn, used to make ethanol.

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