“60 MINUTES” SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012 "THE TROUBLE WITH TREASURE"

[old man]

Reddragon or Dr. Jay, Wow. take a pill and calm down. with all that weight you're carrying I wouldn't want you to have a Heart Attack. You still haven't answered any questions. What are you afraid of ?? Did you put the oil on the emeralds? It's a simple question. Boy sure sounds like something is bothering you. Hope you aren't worried about this emerald case. You and your bald headed partner looked happy on the little boat. Life is short. Be happy. I am. Nothing bothers me. Especially words.
Hope to see you at the picnic. It's not only for treasure hunters you know.

 

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[REDDRAGON]

YOU ARE CLUELESS HAHAHA!!!

 

[old man]

Reddragon, Thanks for answering all the questions that the posters have. I'm still laughing about the statement on the 60 minutes episode that a Drug Runner dumped the emeralds over the side of his boat. Tell me. Did the Drug Runner dump the cannon balls and Spanish Pottery over the side of his Drug Boat too?

 

[Teredo Navalis]

OLD MAN,
You clearly must have fallen off your rocker and hit your head. You have no idea who I am and I am not anyone close to who you are insinuating!! Read my prior posts and you will see I am a scientist ( a real one!!) by training and involved closely with the ocean ( not an ArchY). I have been a diver for 35 years and invested for fun in mining and treasure companies as well as tech for pure entertainment. I wish I could be a full time explorer and treasure hunter.
The thing that was compelling about watching the 60 Minutes piece was how this guy went "all in" to use a gambling term. The reason I posted a link I found from another site was to see how many people really are "all in".
If this is the premiere site and forum in the world, the only poster I see that pass that test besides the Archaeologists that posts here is perhaps Captain Dom up in Jupiter. The captain in the DR, Billy, seems to be committed and does nothing else. Scott Heimdahl tried, but his moral compass seems to always run out of batteries ( permanently since he associated with Wilf Blum and Lawler). Klaus Keppler is all in and has tried to get over his hurdles in Indonesia. And love him or hate him, Gregg Stemm is the real deal and committed.
There is some intelligent life form on this site that would like to promote a way to be able to find artifacts, record them and perhaps making a small living at it, while still preserving history.
A guy just stepped into the spot light of 60 Minutes and the world, after going "all in". He could have run to another country or sold these illicitly but didn't. He may be the new face of treasure hunting. If he succeeds in court, he may open doors for others.
Why are you shooting yourself in the foot , then clawing your face with an ice pick at the same time? I don't know much about the legal process, but I do have a strong belief in the American legal process.

 

[zebraup]

After watching the 60 minutes segment I have to say that I hope it's not a scam.. because it would be freakin cool if some little guy got rich from sunken treasure found with the help of a treasure map bought in bar in Key West!!! (providing the emeralds aren't seeded/planted AND the guy actually gets to keep 'em!) I know there are alot of things that seem sketchy, and along with everyone else I have my questions and doubts, but still, wouldn't that be freakin' cool as hell if it was all true?!?

 

[LM]

OLD MAN,
A guy just stepped into the spot light of 60 Minutes and the world, after going "all in". He could have run to another country or sold these illicitly but didn't. He may be the new face of treasure hunting.

That, right there, is the strongest motive of all, for certain people.
Recognition, renown. For some men, the pull of 'fame' is even stronger than that of money.

One needn't look further than our own fantasists right here on Treasurenet who post all manner of fantastic coins or artifacts ostensibly from their own collections, covered with a dash of muddy topsoil (or perhaps carefully laid in the dirt outside), photographed, then claimed to be an amazing find they made with their trusty VXQ-4000 metal detector, right there next to Miss Johnsons old barn where they'd looked a thousand times before... The ego can do bizarre things when you try at something but fail for years and years and years... IIRC, as stated in the 60 Minutes piece, the chief party associated with this Emerald story was very much at that point.

Regardless, the biggest problem here is the Emeralds having been heat treated.
Oops.
That is a totally, 100% fatal flaw to idea that these emeralds were from antiquity. Since the area where these emeralds were found is known to occasionally yield shipwreck emeralds- but since heat treated emeralds don't grow naturally there (or anywhere else)- the result is a totally unnatural situation.

So where does this leave us?

We might take the guy at face value and assume that a n'er-do-well band of emerald smugglers happened to lose a sizable bag of emeralds overboard, and that those emeralds sat right there, on the surface... and that subsequent to buying an ancient piece of pottery from a downtrodden diver, these unexpectedly modern emeralds were coincidentally discovered right there in the "Ancient Emerald Belt" by a treasure hunter who, up to that point, had achieved nothing of substance in the TH world and was essentially bankrupt?

Or, maybe we go with Occams Razor; that this is a garden variety TH scheme- not too dissimilar to ones we've seen in the past- intended to defraud investors? The "treasure" in question was bulked up with investor money as it rolled in, then laid carefully on the bottom to be conveniently 'found' in front of the cameras?

That the people behind the scheme were shitty planners and didn't think it through carefully enough, to account for freak variables that might expose them like the uncut emeralds they were buying (with investor money, to keep the hope flowing) from the wholesale Colombian distributor had been covertly heat treated, thus completely kinking their story that they were from an ancient Spanish shipwreck? Or that the ego stroke they were really chasing after would collide with the latticework of treasure laws regarding found items of high value, thus endangering their ability to sell the "found treasure" and remain liquid?

Sorry man, but I've been in cow pastures that didn't smell of bullshit as badly as this whole thing does.
We skeptical types traded in the joy of believing in Santa so we could grow up into adults that could see things as they were.
Right now, this appears as a 1 + 1 question.

 

[sphillips]

And not surprisingly, the drive-by media fell for it a s well.

 

[FISHEYE]

I now know how all those emeralds got to be where they are at now.This was easy.I remembered watching this movie in 1981 called "green Ice"Maybe some of you saw it too.Heres a link to the clip where the cg capt unsuspectingly dumps all the stolen emeralds out of the live bait box to the bottom of the ocean.

 

[LM]

My my, how quickly a half-decade flies.

To update this whole mess: This is now known as the "Miscovich Emeralds Hoax".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miscovich_Emeralds_Hoax

Miscovich killed himself shortly after target letters were issued by the US Attorney.
Jay Miscovich, Treasure Hunter Behind Controversial Emerald Find, Commits Suicide | New Times Broward-Palm Beach

A 2014 court proceeding involved a Jeweler from Jupiter who testified that Miscovich bought 80# of emeralds from him.
Emerald investor stuck with fees | KeysNews.com

The lawyer involved with Miscovich was able to avoid sanctions for his role, claiming he too was a victim.
Bruce Silverstein avoids sanctions in emeralds case


I'd say this ought to be a lesson for anyone else considering using the TH world to perpetrate a hoax.
Federal prison isn't fun. Glad to see the good guys went after this.

 

[Blak bart]

Id say it ought to be a blockbuster movie. Truth is stranger than fiction. Id buy a ticket and some popcorn.

 

[Salvor6]

The problem is, it's 5 years old.

 

[Bum Luck]

The problem is, it's 5 years old.

The popcorn?

 

[Blak bart]

I now know how all those emeralds got to be where they are at now.This was easy.I remembered watching this movie in 1981 called "green Ice"Maybe some of you saw it too.Heres a link to the clip where the cg capt unsuspectingly dumps all the stolen emeralds out of the live bait box to the bottom of the ocean.

That was a great low budget movie. Many people have not seen it , and it is worth watching for people like us on t-net. Thanks for reminding me about that one fisheye.