MIAMI – The head of a Florida treasure-hunting company said he hopes for “a collaborative solution” to his dispute with Spain over the discovery of a shipwreck with a multimillion-dollar haul of silver and gold.

Greg Stemm, chief executive of Tampa, Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc, insisted that his company has acted “in accordance with all applicable laws,” and that the treasure it discovered in the Atlantic Ocean was found outside any country’s territorial waters.

Stemm’s comments were sent to Reuters by e-mail on Tuesday.

The Spanish government is suing Odyssey on grounds it is the rightful owner of the 17 metric tons of silver coins and gold the Florida firm recovered last year. The government has vowed to dispel any mystery about the shipwreck in court documents it will file in Tampa on Friday.

Stemm said Spain may indeed have a legitimate claim to the treasure, and that it may have come from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes y las Animas, a Spanish vessel that sank in the Atlantic in 1804.

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