The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 40, October 1, 2006, Article 8

DAVID GANZ ON THE MONACO CENTRAL AMERICA GOLD SEIZURE

Regarding last week's item about the seizure of Monaco Financial's
artifacts from the Central America at the recent Long Beach coin
show, David L. Ganz of Ganz & Hollinger, P.C writes: "What was behind
the seizure is hard to grasp and relates to a law suit that Monaco
Financial is not even a party to.  That law suit is a dispute
involving a claim by investors in Recovery Limited Partnership
and Columbus Exploration, LLC, which first discovered the wreck
of the S.S. Central America and then figured out how to extricate
the treasure.

Nine individual plaintiffs and International Deep Sea Survey, Inc.,
brought suit earlier this year in Ohio State Court against Recovery
Limited and Columbus Exploration, claiming that despite substantial
recovery and sales efforts, they had been denied access to the
partnership books and an accounting.

The treasure salvors removed the case to the U.S. District Court
in the Southern District of Ohio, a remedy they are allowed to do
because of the nature of the claims under which a maritime contract
was deemed a federal and not a state question.  A series of
ancillary proceedings have taken place in U.S. District Courts
in New York and California, but the granddaddy of them all is
located in the Eastern District of Virginia, where the S.S. Central
America litigation has been ongoing for nearly 20 years.

After finding the Central America, the group brought an "in rem"
proceeding in admiralty seeking to establish ownership of and the
right to salvage the ship and its cargo of gold and other artifacts.

Under salvage law, the original owners still retain their ownership
interests in such property. It competes with the law of finders
which, in contrast, expresses the ancient and honorable principle
of finders, keepers.

Meanwhile, the financial backers claim they received no remuneration
and asked that the Court issue process for attachment and garnishment
in the amount of $11,909,880 "against all goods, chattles, credits...
claimed by, being held for or on behalf of, or being transferred
for the benefit of" the Columbus Group.

This is without an adjudication by a Court of the complaint, because
the same remedy was sought and executed on in a New York Court as
well as the Monaco seizure. Hundreds of documents are on file in
the federal directory, some of which are sealed, others of which,
including the operating agreement of the venture, are claims to
be secret but are now available for viewing.

Monaco, for its part, claims it bought the ingots outright and
that the Columbus group has no financial interest in the gold
ingots which, by weight alone - numismatic value not considered
- has a bullion worth exceeding $3-million.  Stay tuned."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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