National
The Odyssey treasure find - a 17 ton joke
By h.b.
Jun 22, 2007 - 6:08 PM

The treasure found by the United States company, Odyssey Exploration, reported to be 17 tons in weight and worth 500 million dollars was, according to new reports coming from America, a joke which in the end went horribly wrong.

The Spanish judiciary has issued an order to board and register the company’s two boats when they leave their current anchorage in Gibraltar, convinced that the company had taken either Spanish treasure illegally, or treasure from other sources but
found in Spanish waters.

Now the co-founder of Odyssey, Greg Stemm, is reported by 20minutos, to have said that the secret movements of the company close to the Spanish coast were part of a joke, created for the Volvo company, who wanted to use a treasure hunt as part of the marketing for the launch of the latest episode of the Pirates of the Caribbean film.

The idea was that the treasure would be found as part of a game. Stemm insisted the company had always said the 17 tons of gold and silver were found in the Atlantic, far from Spanish waters, but his contract with Volvo prohibited them from talking about the promotion.

Now he says it lead to a terrible misunderstanding which had cost many people a lot of money, and was being made worse by irresponsible sections of the media. Greg Stemm is now in Gibraltar to try and free the company’s two ships.

Before the new statement the Spanish Government announced its intention to continue with the judicial investigation to try and discover the truth.