bradyboy
Silver Member
April 4 (Bloomberg) -- Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc., the discoverer of more than 17 tons (15,422 kilograms) of sunken treasure, rose as much as 9.6 percent yesterday after Spain dropped one of its claims to a shipwreck.
Shares of Tampa, Florida-based Odyssey climbed as much as 52 cents to $5.95 following the close of regular trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, after Odyssey said in a statement that Spain's claim in one of three cases was dismissed. It traded at $5.70 at 5:48 p.m. New York time.
``We examined evidence that this is an Italian ship sunk by a submarine during World War I,'' James A. Goold, a lawyer for the Spanish government at Washington's Covington & Burling, said in an interview yesterday. ``It has no effect whatever on the other two cases. And now we concentrate on those two cases.''
Odyssey, which searches for sunken treasure, said in May it recovered more than 17 tons of silver coins from a ship codenamed ``Black Swan,'' which went down in the Atlantic Ocean during the British colonial period. Spain contested the company's claim to that wreck and two others in federal court in Tampa. The third concerns a ship sunk in the English Channel, Goold said.
The dismissal ``shows that just because Spain files a claim against a particular wreck site does not mean it has a valid basis, or as in this case, any evidence whatsoever to support that claim,'' Odyssey General Counsel Melinda MacConnel said in the statement.
Odyssey fell 2 cents yesterday in regular Nasdaq trading, bringing this year's decline to 12 percent.
Spain said in yesterday's court filing that it reserved the right to refile the claim for the Italian ship if ``any future information indicates an interest of claimant in the vessel or its contents.''
The case is Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. v. The Unidentified Shipwrecked Vessel, 07cv616, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (Tampa).
Shares of Tampa, Florida-based Odyssey climbed as much as 52 cents to $5.95 following the close of regular trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, after Odyssey said in a statement that Spain's claim in one of three cases was dismissed. It traded at $5.70 at 5:48 p.m. New York time.
``We examined evidence that this is an Italian ship sunk by a submarine during World War I,'' James A. Goold, a lawyer for the Spanish government at Washington's Covington & Burling, said in an interview yesterday. ``It has no effect whatever on the other two cases. And now we concentrate on those two cases.''
Odyssey, which searches for sunken treasure, said in May it recovered more than 17 tons of silver coins from a ship codenamed ``Black Swan,'' which went down in the Atlantic Ocean during the British colonial period. Spain contested the company's claim to that wreck and two others in federal court in Tampa. The third concerns a ship sunk in the English Channel, Goold said.
The dismissal ``shows that just because Spain files a claim against a particular wreck site does not mean it has a valid basis, or as in this case, any evidence whatsoever to support that claim,'' Odyssey General Counsel Melinda MacConnel said in the statement.
Odyssey fell 2 cents yesterday in regular Nasdaq trading, bringing this year's decline to 12 percent.
Spain said in yesterday's court filing that it reserved the right to refile the claim for the Italian ship if ``any future information indicates an interest of claimant in the vessel or its contents.''
The case is Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. v. The Unidentified Shipwrecked Vessel, 07cv616, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (Tampa).
