SPANISH COURT RULES ON THE 'BLACK SWAN' COINS

   

The history of the Spanish frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes includes two grievances and one victory. The first of the former was when the British Navy sunk it and its 275 crew members on October 5, 1804, off Portugal's Algarve coast. The second offense came in May 2007, when the US treasure-hunting company Odyssey Marine Exploration scooped up its cargo of 500,000 silver and gold coins from the shipwreck at the bottom of the sea. In order to conceal the origin of the treasure, the company used the code name Black Swan for the recovery project.

Triumph came when the US justice system confirmed that the treasure belonged to Spain, in a ruling released in February 2012. But there was one more affront to come: a Spanish court has just definitively shelved a case into alleged crimes committed by the US treasure hunters as they were removing the coins. After a tortuous 14-year investigation, a courtroom in Cádiz has been left with no option but to let the probe die, albeit admitting its bafflement and anger over what it considers unusual proceedings.

At the same time as the legal process began in Florida to determine who was the rightful owner of the rescued treasure, Odyssey or Spain, a court in La Línea de la Concepción, in the southwestern Spanish province of Cádiz, began investigating whether the then-CEO of Odyssey Marine Exploration, Greg Stemm, and his team had committed any criminal offenses when they removed the haul from the shipwreck. Among the potential crimes were damaging an archeological site and smuggling.

The fact that the 500,000 pieces of silver and gold were returned to Spain in February 2012 – nearly 17 tons of material, which are now held in the ARQUA underwater archeology museum in Cartagena – is proof that the legal battle in the United States ended well for Spain. But the latest decision in the Spanish case, to which EL PAÍS has had access, leaves no doubt that the investigation into potential crimes has definitively been shipwrecked.

The three judges who were responsible for the case found that the shelving, which cannot be appealed, is based principally on the fact that the potential offenses have now exceeded the statute of limitations in Spain for trial. And the slow process of the probe, according to the judges' writ, was due to the failure of the US justice system to respond to the letters rogatory sent in 2013, and that were needed if Stemm and the rest of the suspects were to be questioned by investigators.

In terms of the lawsuit over the coins, the United States was on Spain's side, explains Ángel Núñez, a public prosecutor who specializes in cultural heritage and who was in charge of the case until 2009. But it is true that when it comes to targeting one of their own nationals, they are not so willing to collaborate. And given that these were US citizens who are not at the disposal of the Spanish courts…

To read the complete article, see:
Spanish court shelves case against US treasure hunters that looted ‘Mercedes' frigate (https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-10-19/spanish-court-shelves-case-against-us-treasure-hunters-that-looted-sunken-treasure.html)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
BOOTY CALL: ODYSSEY MARINE'S BLACK SWAN COINS ORDERED RETURNED TO SPAIN (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v12n52a19.html)
ARTIFACTS FROM THE NUESTRA SENORA DE LAS MERCEDES (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n50a18.html)
NEW PERIODICAL: THE NAOFRAGIO NEWSLETTER (https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n16a05.html)

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