CNBC | July 10, 2012

Gold may have been manipulated like the London interbank rate or Libor over a long time frame, Ned Naylor-Leyland, investment director at Cheviot, told CNBC.

The scandal surrounding the fixing of the Libor has opened markets up to "more scrutiny and more investigation," Naylor-Leyland said.

He expects to see revelations over the next few months that the price of gold (Exchange:XAU=) was also manipulated because "gold and silver reflect the true value of money the same way interest rates do."

"It is effectively an intervention in two ways; one would be the fact that for central banks, gold and silver going up doesn't make their currency look any good, and secondly a number of the big commercial banks have very large short positions which they like to manage and make easy money from," he said.

A formal investigation into the manipulation of silver has been going on for two years in the U.S. "Although there is a lot of evidence that it is taking place, nothing has come out of the investigation yet," Naylor-Leyland said.

Chris Powell, Secretary and Treasurer of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee told CNBC in June that "as central banks are interested in supporting government bonds and the dollar and keeping interest rates low, they continue to manipulate the gold market".