Todays artical from the Key West Citizen
In the initial months after a cache
of emeralds was discovered off Key
West, some lawyers recommended that
their finder file claim to the purported
multi-million dollar fortune outside the
United States, a move that flabbergasted
a federal judge Wednesday during a
day of courtroom testimony that shed
more light on the origins of the gems.
Former real estate businessman and
nursing home executive turned treasure
salvor Jay Miscovich, who claims to have
found the emeralds in January 2010,
spent much of the day on the witness
stand fielding questions mostly from
Key West lawyer Hugh Morgan, who
attempted to poke holes in his story.
Miscovich testified that he was
advised by his former lawyers to file
his admiralty claim to the emeralds in
another country such as the Cayman
Islands or the Dominican Republic
due to the fact that the emeralds were
found in international waters.
Also, New York City investors were
vying for more control over Miscovich’s
treasure hunting venture, which
spurred a separate Delaware lawsuit.
That lawsuit delayed the filing of the
emeralds claim in the U.S., Miscovich
told U.S. District Judge James Lawrence
King.
King then stopped Morgan’s questioning
for a moment to ask Miscovich
whether his earlier lawyers claimed
to be knowledgeable about marine
salvage law.
They apparently did, Miscovich testified.
King was dumbfounded upon hearing
of the alleged advice to file the
claim in another country.
“That offends my sense of what
lawyers do for a living,” King said.
New facts emerge in gem case
BY ADAM LINHARDT
Citizen Staff
See EMERALDS, Page 8A
That is outrageous advice.
Did they explain you have to
take these emeralds in [to a
courtroom]? That there would
be issues with taking them
from Florida to the Dominican
Republic or wherever?”
Miscovich told the judge he
recalled that one of those former
lawyers or advisors may
have been a board member of
a bank in the Cayman Islands.
“Oh, he’s a master of hiding
money, is he?” King said, referring
to the attorney and stressing
that he was not accusing
Miscovich of wrong doing. “It is
unbelievable such advice was
given. It is shocking to me.”
King is considered an expert
on admiralty law. He presided
over the early proceedings of
Mel Fisher’s famed discovery of
the Spanish galleons Nuestra
Señora de Atocha and Santa
Margarita in the 1980s. King
also presides over yearly
adjudication of ownership
— federal court proceedings
that formally grant Fisher’s
group title to treasure they
found in the preceding year.
Map seller identified
In an answer to a direct question
from Morgan, Miscovich
testified that a man named
Mike Cunningman bought
him a beer and sold him a
hand drawn treasure map at
the Bull &Whistle Bar on Duval
Street in January 2010.
Miscovich has known
Cunningham, a semi-homeless
handyman and landscaper, for
20 years. Cunningham once
worked for Miscovich in their
home state of Pennsylvania.
Cunningham’s identity had
been a closely guarded secret
until Wednesday.
Miscovich testified that
he has no way of reaching
Cunningham.
Miscovich said he was told
by his former lawyers to offer
Cunningham an additional
$50,000 to buy him out of any
future claim to the emeralds or
anything found in the area pictured
on the treasure map, about
30 miles northwest of Key West.
Cunningham allegedly
signed a document agreeing
to the $50,000 buy-out, but
Miscovich told King he has no
copy of that document.
Miscovich testified
Wednesday that he paid
Cunningham $50,000 in $100
bills at a bar in Pennsylvania
about two weeks after discovering
the emeralds.
King then wondered aloud
why it would take a purportedly
poor man two weeks to
collect $50,000.
The issue appeared to be
momentarily quelled when
Miscovich’s lawyers produced
a copy of the signed agreement
between Miscovich and
Cunningham, but Morgan objected
that it wasn’t the original. King
tabled the issue until lawyers find
the original agreement.
New claims
Meanwhile, marine archeologist
Robert Baer testified
that Miscovich told him he
found the emeralds with two
Mexican divers in early 2009,
which appears to contradict
Miscovich’s testimony Tuesday
and Wednesday during which
he said he found the emeralds
in January 2010 with fellow
treasure salvor Steve Elchlepp.
Miscovich and Elchlepp
started what is now known as
JTR Enterprises after the find.
Miscovich attorney John
Siracusa of West Palm Beach
questioned the accuracy of
Baer’s recollections.
King will decide whether
Miscovich owes Kim Fisher,
son of Mel Fisher, money for
lawyer fees.
Kim Fisher is the owner
of Motivation, Inc., a Fisher
family company founded
after Mel Fisher’s death.
Motivation filed court
papers last year suggesting the
154 pounds of emeralds — valued
anywhere from $50,000
to millions — came from the
Fishers’ Atocha and Santa
Margarita treasure sites.
But in August, Motivation
announced it wasn’t interested
in the gems after Duval Streetbased
Emeralds International
owner Manuel Marcial De
Gomar examined them and
said they didn’t come from
those wrecks and were worth
only about $50,000.
King denied Motivation’s motion
to dismiss its claims to the emeralds,
saying he wanted to know why the
company thinks Miscovich should
pay its legal fees.
King demanded a trial in light
of Motivation’s allegations that
Miscovich’s find was a fraud.
Attorney and JTR Enterprises
investor Bruce Silverstein is
expected to testify today.
Expected witness Ken Rose,
owner of a salvage area from
Woman Key to Satan Shoal
known as the Kirby site, was
removed from the witness list
Wednesday. Rose has become an
auxiliary player in the drama due
to Motivation allegations that
some of the emeralds may have
come from the Kirby site and not
the JTR site as Miscovich claims.
“We may never know where
they came from,” Rose said
outside of court. “The only
witnesses in this thing are
hammerheads and jellyfish.”
AI
