5 ms·

Metal detectorist sues FBI for overnight confiscation of 7tons of Civil War gold

58 points by Jimmc414 4y ago

xrayarx 4y ago
According to the report, the FBI is being sued over concealing a gold cache and covering it up. Very strange indeed.
ratg13 4y ago
It’s hard to understand the need for the coverup .. wouldn’t they still own the gold anyway?
- rolenthedeep 4y ago
  The guy claims the FBI is trying to get out of paying him a few million in finder's fees. The evidence he's presenting has some pretty suspicious gaps, the government has clearly redacted a lot of his FOIA requests. They are withholding a bunch of information that would be completely innocuous if they actually didn't find anything, so why be difficult about it?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- puffoflogic 4y ago
  There's a difference between the US Treasury and an FBI slush fund. Although one wonders the extent to which the usual difficulties in moving that much gold would or would not apply to the FBI.
  - pyuser583 4y ago
    I’m pretty sure the FBI knows how to move things around. I once worked in hazardous waste disposal. We would get phone calls from police departments who had seized large amounts of cocaine or meth. They wanted us to “take it off their hands.” That is, pick it up and dispose of it. We always said “you need to hand it off the appropriate authority, like the FBI.” I don’t know if the FBI actually helps in situations like this. But we sure as heck weren’t going to be driving down the highway with truck full cocaine.
cld8483 4y ago
Why didn't he create proof of the gold's existence before giving the federal government an opportunity to make it all disappear? I'll tell you why: the gold never existed, this guy is a con artist and his ploy is to pretend the government stole his gold, lose the lawsuit and claim a coverup, then raise money from people using his new "victim of the government" martyr status to make himself some sort of folk hero. I mean come on; telling the government or anybody about the gold before you even dig it up and see for yourself? Before you even take a picture of the gold to prove it exists? Who would do that? It defies all common sense.
- Jimmc414 4y ago
  That doesn't pass the smell test. If this were a con, how on earth would the conman expect to get paid? Extorting the FBI for a finders fee on gold they didn't recover?
  - rnd0 4y ago
    I suspect the actual grift is riding the gravy train which is the conspiracy speakers/book writers circuit. The trial is just to give him a ticket onto the gravy train. The actual gravy will come from book deals, appearances and such-like.
  - Rebelgecko 4y ago
    By getting a reality show on the History Channel. Maybe the time slot between Oak Island and the Victorio Peak treasure hunters
- no-dr-onboard 4y ago
  I can think of a couple reasons: Excavating that magnitude of gold is certainly no small squeeze on the average paycheck. Additionally, the questions from the regulatory agencies when 7t of gold shows up on the market is certainly something worth considering. Finally, the security of keeping the whole operation under wraps while you excavate any of this yourself? Headaches upon headaches.
  - 4y ago
acranox 4y ago
The Atlantic had a good article about this last summer. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/07/pennsylvania-civil-war-treasure-gold-hunt-fbi/638445/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/07/pennsyl...
1letterunixname 4y ago
Lottery ticket aspiring billionaires, town cranks, or a mixture of both? Surely, if they had standing for a case, there would be discovery. If not, then the media or them could still crawl all up in govt records with a FOIA. Where is this mythical 7 tons of gold? Why not 2 or 400? There would be lots and lots of records of it if it existed. My thinking is the media knowing full well there is no there there but would rather exploit some wild almost social media-sharable adventure victim outrage story. I hope they got paid for their tall tale.
- Rebelgecko 4y ago
  As per the article, the "7 tons" figure is from the FBI's geology consultants
fwlr 4y ago
I am supremely confused by the involvement of the FBI in the first place. I broadly appreciate that a Civil War cache of gold would initiate something like “an archaeological excavation to recover government property”. I can understand having law enforcement presence during the dig due to the high value of the property, and if I really stretch I guess the FBI are essentially the federal government’s police force? So maybe that could be the explanation for why they were involved, but I’m still dubious on that. Even then, why they would carry out their own archaeological dig? And why they would document it so poorly, and finally why would they redact their documentation so severely afterward?

58 points by Jimmc414 4y ago

xrayarx 4y ago

According to the report, the FBI is being sued over concealing a gold cache and covering it up. Very strange indeed.

ratg13 4y ago

It’s hard to understand the need for the coverup .. wouldn’t they still own the gold anyway?

rolenthedeep 4y ago
The guy claims the FBI is trying to get out of paying him a few million in finder's fees. The evidence he's presenting has some pretty suspicious gaps, the government has clearly redacted a lot of his FOIA requests. They are withholding a bunch of information that would be completely innocuous if they actually didn't find anything, so why be difficult about it?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
puffoflogic 4y ago
There's a difference between the US Treasury and an FBI slush fund. Although one wonders the extent to which the usual difficulties in moving that much gold would or would not apply to the FBI.
- pyuser583 4y ago
  I’m pretty sure the FBI knows how to move things around. I once worked in hazardous waste disposal. We would get phone calls from police departments who had seized large amounts of cocaine or meth. They wanted us to “take it off their hands.” That is, pick it up and dispose of it. We always said “you need to hand it off the appropriate authority, like the FBI.” I don’t know if the FBI actually helps in situations like this. But we sure as heck weren’t going to be driving down the highway with truck full cocaine.

cld8483 4y ago

Why didn't he create proof of the gold's existence before giving the federal government an opportunity to make it all disappear? I'll tell you why: the gold never existed, this guy is a con artist and his ploy is to pretend the government stole his gold, lose the lawsuit and claim a coverup, then raise money from people using his new "victim of the government" martyr status to make himself some sort of folk hero. I mean come on; telling the government or anybody about the gold before you even dig it up and see for yourself? Before you even take a picture of the gold to prove it exists? Who would do that? It defies all common sense.

Jimmc414 4y ago
That doesn't pass the smell test. If this were a con, how on earth would the conman expect to get paid? Extorting the FBI for a finders fee on gold they didn't recover?
- rnd0 4y ago
  I suspect the actual grift is riding the gravy train which is the conspiracy speakers/book writers circuit. The trial is just to give him a ticket onto the gravy train. The actual gravy will come from book deals, appearances and such-like.
- Rebelgecko 4y ago
  By getting a reality show on the History Channel. Maybe the time slot between Oak Island and the Victorio Peak treasure hunters
no-dr-onboard 4y ago
I can think of a couple reasons: Excavating that magnitude of gold is certainly no small squeeze on the average paycheck. Additionally, the questions from the regulatory agencies when 7t of gold shows up on the market is certainly something worth considering. Finally, the security of keeping the whole operation under wraps while you excavate any of this yourself? Headaches upon headaches.
- 4y ago

acranox 4y ago

The Atlantic had a good article about this last summer. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/07/pennsylvania-civil-war-treasure-gold-hunt-fbi/638445/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/07/pennsyl...

1letterunixname 4y ago

Lottery ticket aspiring billionaires, town cranks, or a mixture of both? Surely, if they had standing for a case, there would be discovery. If not, then the media or them could still crawl all up in govt records with a FOIA. Where is this mythical 7 tons of gold? Why not 2 or 400? There would be lots and lots of records of it if it existed. My thinking is the media knowing full well there is no there there but would rather exploit some wild almost social media-sharable adventure victim outrage story. I hope they got paid for their tall tale.

Rebelgecko 4y ago
As per the article, the "7 tons" figure is from the FBI's geology consultants

fwlr 4y ago

I am supremely confused by the involvement of the FBI in the first place. I broadly appreciate that a Civil War cache of gold would initiate something like “an archaeological excavation to recover government property”. I can understand having law enforcement presence during the dig due to the high value of the property, and if I really stretch I guess the FBI are essentially the federal government’s police force? So maybe that could be the explanation for why they were involved, but I’m still dubious on that. Even then, why they would carry out their own archaeological dig? And why they would document it so poorly, and finally why would they redact their documentation so severely afterward?