psdiver
Jr. Member
- Jun 19, 2007
- 79
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- Detector(s) used
- Whites/JWFisher Pulse 8x
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Filing seeks sole ownership of treasure
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
[email protected]
If you lost a cache of Colombian gems worth a reported half-billion dollars in shallow waters about 30 miles off Key West, now is the time to claim it.
A salvor who says he found an undisclosed amount of emeralds, amethysts and quartz crystals scattered on the Gulf of Mexico's sandy seafloor in January 2010 has filed court records laying claim to the treasure, meaning if no one comes forward to challenge his ownership, the fortune could become his alone.
Claims must be made in the next few weeks, or retired doctor-cum-treasure salvor Jay Miscovich could claim what has been brought to the surface so far as well as all future lifted stones, said his Key West attorney, David Paul Horan.
"Understand," Horan said, "these have to be legally verifiable claims and you have to swear under oath to that."
News of the mysterious find has been leaking into the public domain recently, in the wake of legal battles waged between Miscovich and his wealthy former investors, as well as the Sept. 30 court claim.
The stones appeared to have originated from the Muzo region of Colombia, in the foothills of the Andes, which reportedly contain the highest-quality emeralds in the world, Horan said. The area has been mined for hundreds of years and the Duke of Devonshire Emerald, one of the world's largest uncut emeralds, came from the Muzo mines in 1831.
More than 30 of the stones have been sent to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., according to court documents. Researchers there determined the stones to be from the Muzo region, Horan said. Just how old they are is still being researched.
"We have people looking at that as we speak," Horan said this week. The emeralds have to be analyzed by high-tech equipment that deciphers their molecular makeup, he said. "It's kind of like DNA testing."
Miscovich and other divers have not found remnants of a ship, though they have found a cannonball, Horan said.
Miscovich has hired marine archaeologist R. Duncan Mathewson III, who is formulating a plan on how to remove more emeralds from the sea, Horan alerted U.S. District Court Judge James L. King in his Sept. 30 filing. Mathewson, a Monroe County School Board member, was Mel Fisher's marine archaeologist when the famed treasure salvor found the Nuestra Señora de Atocha.
Miscovich has formed JTR Enterprises LLC, a Delaware company, in his pursuit of the emeralds. He formerly founded Emerald Reef LLC in the same state last year after he brought in his brother, Scott Miscovich, and Dean Barr, a billionaire and former Citigroup hedge fund executive. Neil Ash, a New York accountant, was brought into the fold as well.
Emerald Reef disbanded in the wake of an undisclosed Aug. 19 civil lawsuit settlement between Miscovich and those investors, who claimed Miscovich was defrauding them.
[email protected]
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
[email protected]
If you lost a cache of Colombian gems worth a reported half-billion dollars in shallow waters about 30 miles off Key West, now is the time to claim it.
A salvor who says he found an undisclosed amount of emeralds, amethysts and quartz crystals scattered on the Gulf of Mexico's sandy seafloor in January 2010 has filed court records laying claim to the treasure, meaning if no one comes forward to challenge his ownership, the fortune could become his alone.
Claims must be made in the next few weeks, or retired doctor-cum-treasure salvor Jay Miscovich could claim what has been brought to the surface so far as well as all future lifted stones, said his Key West attorney, David Paul Horan.
"Understand," Horan said, "these have to be legally verifiable claims and you have to swear under oath to that."
News of the mysterious find has been leaking into the public domain recently, in the wake of legal battles waged between Miscovich and his wealthy former investors, as well as the Sept. 30 court claim.
The stones appeared to have originated from the Muzo region of Colombia, in the foothills of the Andes, which reportedly contain the highest-quality emeralds in the world, Horan said. The area has been mined for hundreds of years and the Duke of Devonshire Emerald, one of the world's largest uncut emeralds, came from the Muzo mines in 1831.
More than 30 of the stones have been sent to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., according to court documents. Researchers there determined the stones to be from the Muzo region, Horan said. Just how old they are is still being researched.
"We have people looking at that as we speak," Horan said this week. The emeralds have to be analyzed by high-tech equipment that deciphers their molecular makeup, he said. "It's kind of like DNA testing."
Miscovich and other divers have not found remnants of a ship, though they have found a cannonball, Horan said.
Miscovich has hired marine archaeologist R. Duncan Mathewson III, who is formulating a plan on how to remove more emeralds from the sea, Horan alerted U.S. District Court Judge James L. King in his Sept. 30 filing. Mathewson, a Monroe County School Board member, was Mel Fisher's marine archaeologist when the famed treasure salvor found the Nuestra Señora de Atocha.
Miscovich has formed JTR Enterprises LLC, a Delaware company, in his pursuit of the emeralds. He formerly founded Emerald Reef LLC in the same state last year after he brought in his brother, Scott Miscovich, and Dean Barr, a billionaire and former Citigroup hedge fund executive. Neil Ash, a New York accountant, was brought into the fold as well.
Emerald Reef disbanded in the wake of an undisclosed Aug. 19 civil lawsuit settlement between Miscovich and those investors, who claimed Miscovich was defrauding them.
[email protected]
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