Vexari
1 month ago
Odyssey comments on WikiLeaks information
By coinweek
December 22, 2010
“Black Swan” and HMS Sussex projects named in Government Communications
Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NasdaqCM: OMEX) a pioneer in the field of deep ocean exploration, was named in several U.S. State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks and furnished to the media worldwide. Some of the released cables suggest that the State Department offered special assistance in the “Black Swan” case to Spanish officials in exchange for assistance in acquiring a French painting confiscated by the Nazis during World War II and now controlled by Spain.
THE CABLES INDICATE THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT ALSO PROVIDED CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTATION ON ODYSSEY TO SPAIN.
Other State Department cables contradict Spain’s claims and support Odyssey’s previously stated version of events relating to the company’s activities in Spain, including the HMS Sussex project and the boarding of Odyssey’s vessels.
“While we are obviously concerned about these implications regarding the ‘Black Swan’ case, we are attempting to obtain additional information before taking any specific actions. I have personally sent a letter to the Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, requesting additional information and a review of the position taken by the U.S. in the ‘Black Swan’ legal case,” stated Greg Stemm, Odyssey CEO. “The possibility that someone in the U.S. Government came up with this perfidious offer to sacrifice Odyssey, its thousands of shareholders, and the many jobs created by the company in exchange for the return of one painting to one individual is hard to believe. The WikiLeaks cables clearly show that we have worked cooperatively and transparently with both Spain and the State Department for many years, in spite of claims to the contrary. That fact makes the revelations all the more disappointing. The cables also make us wonder what other agreements may have taken place between U.S. Government officials and Spain regarding the amicus brief filed in support of Spain’s position in the ‘Black Swan’ case.”
“We’ve wondered why the United States changed its long standing position on sovereign immunity, which prior to this case was consistent with U.S. law, international law and U.S. naval regulations that in order for a foreign country’s ships and cargo to be immune from the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts they must be engaged in military, non-commercial activities,” stated Melinda MacConnel, Odyssey Vice President and General Counsel. “These released cables do call into question the motivation behind the amicus brief filed by the Executive Branch supporting Spain in the ‘Black Swan’ case.”
Additional cables released support Odyssey’s statements that, contrary to allegations of certain Spanish officials, the company always cooperated with the Spanish Government and that permits from the Spanish government were granted for work on the HMS Sussex project. The cables also demonstrate the obstructionist activities carried out by certain Spanish officials who had personal reasons for trying to prevent Odyssey from working on the Sussex. These obstructions took place even though Odyssey has an exclusive contract for the archaeological excavation of this UK sovereign immune warship (which was on a strictly military mission when it sank in 1694 off the coast of Gibraltar). Odyssey filed an affidavit in 2007 with a chronology of Odyssey’s interactions with the Spanish Government since 1998. It can be accessed at http://shipwreck.net/pdf/ExhibitE.pdf. The document contains entries that are corroborated by information in the State Department cables, which directly contradict claims by some Spanish officials and the Spanish media.
About the “Black Swan”
In May 2007, Odyssey announced the discovery of the “Black Swan,” a Colonial-period site located in the Atlantic Ocean which yielded over 500,000 silver coins weighing more than 17 tons, hundreds of gold coins, worked gold, and other artifacts. Odyssey completed an extensive pre-disturbance survey of the “Black Swan” site, which included recording over 14,000 digital still images used to create a photomosaic of the site.
The coins and artifacts were brought into the United States with a valid export license and imported legally pursuant to U.S. law. Odyssey brought the artifacts under the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court by filing an Admiralty arrest action. This procedure allows any legitimate claimant with an interest in the property to make a claim.
The Kingdom of Spain filed a claim to the treasure alleging that the coins originated from Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish naval vessel which sunk in 1804. Spain claimed that it owned all of the coins and that the treasure was immune from the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). Although it has not been conclusively proven the recovered cargo came from the Mercedes, Odyssey presented clear evidence to the trial court (including the ship’s manifest) that shows the primary purpose of the Mercedes’ last voyage was commercial in nature and the vast majority of coins on board were owned by private merchants, not by Spain. The United States filed an amicus brief in the case changing its previous position and supporting Spain in the “Black Swan” case by setting forth a re-interpretation of the language in the Sunken Military Craft Act (SMCA) to allow government owned vessels on commercial missions to enjoy sovereign immunity.
A number of individual private descendants (whose ancestors were transporting goods on the Mercedes) as well as the country of Peru have filed claims in the case.
Without conducting a hearing, the district court sided with Spain and ruled that the treasure should all be turned over to Spain. The case is currently on appeal at the Eleventh Circuit.
For more information on the “Black Swan,” visit www.shipwreck.net/blackswan.php.
Odyssey’s significant legal filings in the “Black Swan” case can be viewed at http://www.shipwreck.net/blackswanlegal.php. https://coinweek.com/odyssey-marine-exploration-comments-on-wikileaks-information/
conix
3 years ago
Treasure Washes Up on Venezuela’s Shore, Bringing Gold and Hope to a Village
December 12, 2020
GUACA, Venezuela — The most extraordinary moment in the young fisherman’s life began in the most mundane way: with a morning visit to the latrine.
Walking back to his tin-roofed hut on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, the fisherman, Yolman Lares, saw something glisten along the shore. Raking his hand through the sand, he pulled up a gold medallion with an image of the Virgin Mary.
The village of Guaca was once at the center of Venezuela’s fish processing industry but is now reduced to penury by the lack of gasoline and the closure of most of its small fish-packing plants. Amid such misery, the valuable find seemed like a miracle.
“I began to shake, I cried from joy,” said Mr. Lares, 25. “It was the first time something special has happened to me.”
At home, Mr. Lares told his father-in-law, also a fisherman. Word of the discovery spread swiftly, and soon most of the village’s 2,000 residents had joined in a frenzied treasure hunt, combing every inch of the waterfront, digging around dilapidated fishing boats, even sleeping on the beach to protect their few square feet of sand and the untold fortune the plot could contain.
Since late September, their search has turned up hundreds of pieces of gold and silver jewelry, ornaments, and golden nuggets that washed up on their shore, offering the villagers a baffling and wondrous — if short-lived — reprieve from Venezuela’s seemingly endless economic collapse.
Dozens of villagers said they had found at least one precious object, usually a gold ring, with unconfirmed reports that some had sold their discoveries for as much as $1,500.
To many here, the unexpected bounty was a message of hope.
“This is God, setting his agenda,” said Ciro Quijada, a local fish plant worker who found a gold ring.
No one knows where the gold came from and how it ended up scattered along a few hundred feet of Guaca’s narrow, workaday beach. The mystery has merged with folklore, and explanations draw equally on legends of Caribbean pirates, on Christian traditions and on the widespread mistrust of Venezuela’s authoritarian government.
The jagged coastline around Guaca, on Venezuela’s Paria peninsula, is punctuated with bays and islands that have long given refuge to adventurers.
It was on this peninsula, in 1498, that Christopher Columbus became the first European to set foot on the South American continent, thinking he’d found the entrance to the Garden of Eden.
Later, this sparsely defended coastline was regularly raided by Dutch and French buccaneers. Today, it is a haven for drug and fuel smugglers and modern-day pirates who prey on fishermen.
Did a storm disturb a pirate treasure chest or break open up a sunken colonial frigate? Did the bounty come from modern smugglers heading to nearby Trinidad? For weeks, Guaca was rife with speculation.
Government opponents said officials may have sprinkled the gold on the beach to calm protests by local residents against the terrible living conditions. Others fretted the government would send soldiers to confiscate their treasure.
Some villagers called the gold a blessing, others a curse that would doom anyone touching it.
Once the first photo of the discovery was posted on Facebook, the news spread around Venezuela. But the area’s remoteness, the widespread shortage of gasoline and the coronavirus quarantines prevented a national gold rush.
A chemical test commissioned by The New York Times on a link of gold chain discovered on Guaca’s beach indicated the piece was likely manufactured in Europe in recent decades.
The test showed the chain was made of high-quality, 18-karat gold uncommon in Venezuela’s domestic jewelry production. The alloy would have been difficult to produce in pre-modern conditions, said Dr. Guy Demortier, a jewelry-authentication specialist based in Belgium.
Chris Corti, a technical expert in jewelry-making based in Britain, examined photographs of several objects discovered in Guaca and said they appeared to have been commercially manufactured in the mid-20th century.
But he cautioned that more analysis was needed to make a firm determination about the date and origin of the pieces.
The source of Guaca’s treasure may never be known. The villagers almost immediately sold the objects they discovered to buy food.
“Whatever we get, goes straight in the mouth,” said Hernán Frontado, a fisherman and Mr. Lares’s father-in-law, who had to beg neighbors for cassava, the cheapest local staple, to feed his family before finding several pieces of gold jewelry.
Mr. Frontado sold his finds in Carupano, the closest city, for less than what he thought they were worth to buy rice, flour and pasta.
Before Venezuela’s economic crisis began in 2014, Guaca and the surrounding villages supplied Latin America with sardines and canned tuna. Today, only eight of the 30 rudimentary sardine warehouses in the area still operate; the nearby tuna canning factories, run by the government, have gone bust.
Crippling fuel shortages this year have tipped the downturn into a daily fight for survival for many villagers.
To obtain any gasoline for their boats, the villagers have to sell half their sardine catch to the government at a set rate equivalent to just 1.5 cents for a pound.
“The government doesn’t care about us at all,” said José Campos, a sardine fisherman. “We keep giving them fish, and we get nothing in return.”
Fuel became so scarce this year that many fishermen had to row out to the open sea, or stay out in their small, exposed boats for days to preserve gasoline, braving storms, thirst and pirates.
“It got so bad, I felt as if a rope was tightening around my neck,” said Mr. Lares, who first discovered the gold.
He made $125 from the objects he found — by far the biggest sum he ever made at once.
Mr. Lares used the money to buy staples in bulk. He also bought some sweet breads for his children — the first treat they’d had in years. He fixed a broken television and bought a used speaker, giving his family some entertainment in their earthen-floor home without indoor plumbing, where six people share one bed under a leaking roof.
The treasure has allowed his family to go back to eating twice a day. His youngest child, 2-year-old Thairy Lares, has gained weight in the past month, though she is still malnourished.
The television is now on at all hours, its fuzzy image showing a happy, prosperous nation. Venezuela’s state channels are the only ones available in Guaca.
The village’s situation has looked up since the appearance of gold. Sardines have come back to Guaca’s shores after a four-month absence, and the gasoline supply has improved slightly.
Every morning, the village bursts into frantic activity when the sardine boats arrive with their catch, drawing hundreds of people to the coastal strip.
In small groups, they set to unloading, cleaning, gutting and packing the catch in coordinated silence. The tapping of carving knives and the cries of sea gulls are the only sounds accompanying their methodical work. The village’s most vulnerable residents stop by to collect their daily fish rations for free.
Mr. Lares has returned to his routine, but still keeps a pair of simple gold earrings decorated with a star. Despite the pressing need, he doesn’t want to part with them because they remind him of the ancient navigators who crossed the Caribbean guided by the stars.
“It is the only pretty thing that I have,” he said.
The treasure did not change Mr. Lares’s life, but it reminded him that good things can happen, even amid hardship.
Months after the first discovery, Guaca’s residents still occasionally find small golden objects in the sand. At sunset, when the beach goes quiet, a few residents can be seen sitting by the surf, running their hands through the sand in the fading light.
“If it happened once,” Mr. Lares said, “it will happen again.”
spec machine
4 years ago
OMEX news out
not sure why but it hasn't posted here on the ihub news
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Press Release: Odyssey Marine Exploration Obtains up to $4.2M in Funding in Two Separate Transactions
8:30 am ET December 12, 2019 (Dow Jones) Print
Odyssey Marine Exploration Obtains up to $4.2M in Funding in Two Separate Transactions
TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 12, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMEX), a pioneer in the field of deep-ocean exploration, has obtained commitments for up to $4.2 million in funding under two separate arrangements.
On December 6, 2019, Odyssey executed an agreement with a group representing existing shareholders to provide up to $2 million in funding as an advance against a portion of multi-million-dollar payment Odyssey expects to receive within the next six months. This payment is related to a previously completed shipwreck project. The group provided $539,000 in funding to Odyssey on December 10, 2019.
In addition, a term sheet has been executed and definitive agreements are being drafted with the group that has already committed up to $6.5 million in non-recourse legal funding for the NAFTA action for up to an additional $2.2 million. Given the significant management time and internal resources devoted to the NAFTA case, the funder has agreed that this additional tranche of funding may be used for Odyssey's internal expenses directly related to support of the arbitration.
"A group of existing shareholders presented us an opportunity to factor a portion of an expected payment to Odyssey," said Mark Gordon, Odyssey Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. "At about the same time, the group responsible for the legal funding of our NAFTA action has agreed to provide up to an additional $2.2 million pursuant to terms similar to the current NAFTA legal funding.
"We appreciate the support of these groups who are intimately familiar with the Odyssey team, business plan and mid- to long-term outlook for the company. These two deals provide the capital needed to advance our overall business plan and to execute the initial phases of onsite operations on our Lihir Offshore Gold project in the first half or 2020. Geological and environmental surveys will be conducted to aid in the production of a 43-101/JORC compliant resource estimate and environmental impact assessment."
The first agreement is a non-interest-bearing six-month loan of up to $2.0 million. When the expected factored payment is received by Odyssey, Odyssey is obligated to repay the lender the amount outstanding plus a 55% factoring fee. The loans will be convertible at the lender's option at an initial conversion rate of $5 per share of Odyssey common stock, subject to adjustment and otherwise in accordance with the purchase agreement.
The other funding arrangement for up to $2.2 million will follow substantially the same terms as the current NAFTA legal funding, except there will be an option to convert this additional amount into Odyssey stock at current market prices. A deposit of $500,000 has been received toward this amount.
About Odyssey Marine Exploration
Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (Nasdaq:OMEX) is engaged in deep-ocean exploration using innovative methods and state-of-the-art technology to provide access to critical resources worldwide. Our core focus is the discovery, development and extraction of deep-ocean minerals. Odyssey also provides marine services for private clients and governments. For additional details, please visit www.odysseymarine.com.
Forward Looking Information
Odyssey Marine Exploration believes the information set forth in this Press Release may include "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. Certain factors that could cause results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements are set forth in "Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 1, 2019. The financial and operating projections as well as estimates of mining assets are based solely on the assumptions developed by Odyssey that it believes are reasonable based upon information available to Odyssey as of the date of this release. All projections and estimates are subject to material uncertainties and should not be viewed as a prediction or an assurance of actual future performance. The validity and accuracy of Odyssey's projections will depend upon unpredictable future events, many of which are beyond Odyssey's control and, accordingly, no assurance can be given that Odyssey's assumptions will prove true or that its projected results will be achieved.
Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) permits mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. We use certain terms in this press release, such as "measured", "indicated," "inferred" and "resources," which the SEC guidelines strictly prohibit us from including in our filings with the SEC. "Inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that part or all of the inferred mineral resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable, and are urged to consider closely the disclosures in our Form 10-K which may be secured from us or from the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.
CONTACT:
Laura Barton
Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc.
laura@odysseymarine.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 12, 2019 08:30 ET (13:30 GMT)
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