Hey Capted, the KW Citizen post went something like this...
A prominent lawyer from Delaware who formerly represented a now disgraced sunken treasure salvor took the stand in Miami on Friday regarding what and when he knew about an alleged multimillion dollar Key West treasure fraud.
And millions in legal fees could be hanging in the balance.
The case revolves around whether Bruce Silverstein of the elite corporate firm Young Conaway Stargatt and Taylor, knew or should have known that novice treasure salvor Jay Miscovich was lying about an emerald find.
The January 2010 find in waters about 40 miles north of Key West, Miscovich claimed, was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The claim ignited nearly four years of legal wrangling after Kim Fisher — son of famed salvor Mel Fisher and now head of his father’s company, Motivation — spent more than a million dollars exposing the find as a fraud.
Fisher now wants Silverstein to pay for his legal fees, called sanctions in legal parlance.
On Tuesday, Senior U.S. Judge James Lawrence King tossed Fisher’s bid to include Young Conaway Stargatt and Taylor and another Miscovich investor named Paul Sullivan, a former campaign advisor to Bill Clinton, in the litigation. King ruled that Fisher had not presented sufficient evidence that the firm and Sullivan were party to any fraud, according to court records.
King kept Silverstein in the case, however. Much of Friday was spent with Silverstein answering questions about the hundreds of emails between he and others that Fisher claims show Silverstein was part of the fraud.
Silverstein was Miscovich’s personal attorney, but did not represent him or his treasure company, JTR Enterprises LLC., as the counsel of record in the latest string of litigation.
Silverstein’s defense attorney, Kendall Coffey of Miami, has painted Silverstein as an unknowing party to the fraud — one of many investors who were hoodwinked by Miscovich’s hoax. That was the central theme Friday during Silverstein’s testimony, according to attorneys present.
Legal onlookers expect King to give much weight to Silverstein’s testimony in his decision on whether or not to sanction the attorney.
Miscovich claimed to have bought a treasure map from a handyman named Michael Cunningham, who formerly worked for him in Pennsylvania. He claimed the map led him in January 2010 to within a mile or so of a cache of emeralds and other gems about 30 or 40 miles off Key West.
Miscovich claimed the emeralds were worth as much as $400 million or more. The story lured CBS News to Key West, which featured Miscovich in a 60 Minutes segment called “The Trouble with Treasure.”
Miscovich committed suicide in October 2013 as Fisher’s attorneys began unraveling the fraud.
It was officially exposed in January during a court proceeding in which a Jupiter jeweler testified Miscovich bought 80 pounds of emeralds from him.
alinhardt@keysnews.com
