Monday, August 22, 2011

The Emerald (Sunken) City

A pretty interesting story from Reuters involving half a billion dollars in sunken treasure and who owns it, angry investors, corporate greed, and a guy named Jay Miscovich who made one hell of a find.

In early 2010, Miscovich, an investor in sunken treasure excavations, claimed to have located a site and recovered a "cache" of precious stones.

To pay for the pricey recovery work, Miscovich turned for assistance to his brother Scott, a Hawaiian physician. Scott connected Jay with Dean Barr, the former Citigroup hedge fund executive, who in turn, brought in Ash the accountant. In the summer of 2010, the pair agreed to pony up roughly $2 million, according to the partnership agreement, although the two sides differ on how much of that they actually invested.

Almost immediately, things soured. The investors suspected the Miscoviches were scheming to keep the most highly prized gems for themselves -- a concern fueled by the empty safe deposit box episode.

Their worst fears seemed to be confirmed when Ash, the accountant, was contacted by Gerry Edwards, a diver working on the recovery efforts in Florida. Recounting the conversation to Reuters, Edwards said he told Ash that boxes of emeralds were being stashed out of the investors' reach in Key West.

Soon after Edwards' call to Ash, the investors sued. They wanted a ruling that Jay Miscovich had breached his contract with the investors and that they could seize control of the partnership.

The Miscovich side of the story, as related in court documents, is quite different. According to Jay Miscovich, the investors created events like the empty safe deposit box as a pretext to have the bank deny the brothers' access to the vault. The "stash" that the diver Edwards discovered in Key West was nothing but worthless stones.

To Jay Miscovich, it was the investors who appeared to be angling to snatch the treasure.


It gets crazy from there, involving the Smithsonian Museum, "bags of gemstones", a former Bill Clinton campaign manager, a movie deal and a sealed settlement in Delaware courts.  This one's going to make a great movie when it comes out if you ask me.

I really hope Matthew McConaughey isn't in it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My partner and I lived and worked with Jay Miscovich in Derry, PA beginning February 2010 until December 2010 and continued working for him through tele-commuting from December until this summer. I have documents, pictures all the inside of information that is missing from this story. I was there when Jay found out he had recovered the emeralds. I was there when they were brought to his home. I was there to help him sort through the emeralds, assist in his travel to Key West to meet with his divers. I personally picked out emeralds to be made into jewelry pieces expected to sell for millions with a good friends of Jay's, a well known jeweler in Pittsburgh, PA. Where should I go, whom should I contact to sell all of my information too? Like I said I have documents, emails printed, pictures of the emeralds, I know this story, I know jay's life. He disresepcted me, lied, and put my life in a worse position than when I started with him. All I ever did for him was work hard, be a companion/friend, and be his confidante. If he had listened to me, his business wouldn't have come to such an ugly place. Now, after he took advantage of me, I have nothing to lose for letting go of all these secrets for his business I have kept.

Thank you,
Amy

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