A Canadian oceanographer who discovered what may be the richest shipwreck treasure in history [The Black Swan] has agreed to pay US$216,355 in an insider-trading settlement with U.S. government regulators.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced a civil settlement Thursday with Ernesto Tapanes, an oceanographic consultant after accusing him of illegally profiting from his find.

In March, he discovered a wreck, code-named Black Swan, for Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. as he surveyed off the coast of Gibraltar. The company revealed the Atlantic Ocean discovery of 500,000 colonial-era silver coins, estimated to be worth up to $500 million May 18.

In a civil suit, the SEC alleged in the weeks before the announcement, Tapanes used his inside knowledge of the find when he bought buy 42,000 shares of company stock. Odyssey Marine shares soared nearly 81 per cent on May 18 to $8.32 apiece. Tapanes then sold the stock, reaping a profit of $107,102. Read Full Story

TAMPA, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Odyssey Marine Exploration (Nasdaq:OMEX), the world’s leader in the field of deep-ocean shipwreck exploration announced today that its Motion for a Protective Order which will govern discovery and evidence exchanged with Spain in the case of the three pending Admiralty Arrests was granted. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo of the U.S. District Court’s Tampa Division, which has jurisdiction over the cases, agreed to enter the Protective Order as presented by Odyssey with some clarifications requested by Spain. He had previously indicated that Spain would have to agree to a Protective Order before site information was released to them.

At a pretrial conference on Thursday, the Court underscored the importance of protecting the site and avoiding any release of confidential information. In the spirit of cooperation in protecting the site, Odyssey volunteered to provide to Spain the precise locations of the sites rather than a general area, as originally requested by Spain.

Within 14 days of the issuance of the Protective Order, in addition to the locations, Odyssey will provide Spain information about all three sites including photomosaics of the sites and information about artifacts recovered to date. Odyssey also agreed to provide Spain’s experts access to the artifacts recovered from the sites. (more…)

TAMPA (AP) — The Spanish government will receive detailed information about three centuries-old shipwrecks where a Florida company found a half-billion dollars worth of coins and artifacts last year, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

Odyssey Marine Exploration (OMEX) will share the exact location of the shipwrecks and items found onboard, plus videos and photos taken from the sites, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo said. The information will not be made public, the judge said.

Spain has sought the information in federal court because it contends it is entitled to the treasure if it comes from one of its sunken ships, or if the artifacts were removed from Spain’s territorial waters.

The agreement is “best for everybody,” Odyssey co-founder Greg Stemm said after the hearing. “Now we can talk about the facts.” Read Full Story

A rare hoard of Roman coins has been found in Bath at the site of a new city centre hotel. Around 150 coins have so far been unearthed in the run-up to work on the new Gainsborough Hotel and Thermal Spa.

But the Lower Borough Walls site is expected to yield more than 1,000 coins once the whole haul has been examined.

The find has been greeted with excitement by archaeologists because some of the coins are thought to date from the middle of the third century, one of the most poorly represented periods for coins in Britain.

The coins were discovered by Cotswold Archaeology while excavating the area around the site of the main pool of the new spa hotel, which is being created by Bath-based businessman Trevor Osborne. (more…)

Christmas Day yielded an unusual present for Salinas resident Art Ballesteros.

Ballesteros found a real, a Spanish silver coin from the 1500s, on an isolated beach near San Francisco. “It was a Christmas present not only for myself but also for California,” he said. “The coin is extremely valuable.”

He said Wednesday he had gone to visit his brother, Michael, in San Francisco for the holidays. On Christmas Day, they did what they both grew up doing: searching for hidden treasure. They took metal detectors to the beach and began scanning. Read Full Story