Why am I not suprised or shocked? http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/SilverETFs_1_PDF.pdf
Abstract: A data analysis was conducted of the inventory holdings of two publicly available silver ETFs: iShares SLV and London-based ETF Securities. Custom software was written to analyze published silver bar information for anomalies. Multiple anomalies were found. We detected numerous duplicate bar entries within both lists, which comprised 11.88% and 0.4619% of the SLV and ETFS bar totals, respectively. In addition, we found several 'perfect duplicate' entries within the iShares SLV bar list: that is, the same weight, manufacturer, and serial number were listed multiple times. These comprised 0.0025% of the SLV bar totals. More disturbing, however, was our accidental discovery of the presence of what we have termed 'rough internal duplicates' -- bars with near-identical serial numbers, identical weights, and identical brands. The reason the latter are more problematic is their very low-statistical probability, suggesting some level of fraud and or accounting incompetence is present. We noticed other data anomalies as well, including large amounts of low serial number clustering, which was identified by our industry sources as 'unusual'. Furthermore, we tested for the presence of 'weight duplicates' -- which upon exclusion -- reduced the bar inventories by an astonishing 82% and 50% for the SLV and ETFS funds. We suspect the number of 'weight duplicates' lie well outside the expected Gaussian distribution, but leave this for the subject of future research. Finally, we found multiple cross-referenced bars with identical brands and serial numbers present in both the London and U.S. funds -- funds ostensibly with different custodians. Taken together with evidence of 'revisions' published to the public ETFS data after exposure of the initial flaws, these data suggest there is a degree of systematic fraud or gross incompetence in these funds -- perhaps both.
