Treasure Hunters Claim FBI is Hiding the Recovery of Lost Civil War-Era Gold Bullion
Jose Nino
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Dennis Parada, the owner of treasure hunting company Finders Keepers, filed a lawsuit against the FBI towards the end of February over the FBI’s concealment of the recovery of Civil War-era gold bars.
Kitco reported that back in early 2018, Parada got in touch with the FBI to inform the agency that they potentially discovered a lost shipment of gold, that is estimated to be around 739 troy ounces. Per local legend, the gold went missing in 1863, prior to the historic battle of Gettysburg, and was en route to the United States Mint in Philadelphia. Legend has it that the gold was believed to have been lost in the forest close to Dents Run, Pennsylvania, roughly 3 hours northeast of Pittsburgh.
Parada sued the FBI for information concerning their excavation of the area and is blaming the agency for withholding evidence to hide the recovery of the historic shipment of lost gold.
The latest accusations and prolonged legal battle came in the wake of the FBI releasing several government records connected to the treasure hunt. Per the documents and a video produced by the FBI, advanced testing hinted at something being buried in the area Parada identified.
“We’ve identified through our investigation a site that we believe has U.S. property, which includes a significant sum of base metal which is valuable … particularly gold, maybe silver,” an agent part of the FBI’s art-crime team highlighted. The FBI blurred the Philadelphia-based agent’s face to safeguard his privacy.
The agent continued by noting that the test results did not demonstrate the presence of gold and that the only way to close this “155-year-old cold case” was to dig.
In 2022, four years after conducting digging operations in the area, the FBI admitted that it was searching for lost gold. The agency announced that it did not discover anything and it “continues to unequivocally reject any claims or speculation to the contrary.”
Parada did not buy the official statement put forward by the FBI.
“We feel we were double-crossed and lied to,” Parada said during an interview with Associated Press. “The truth will come out.”
In the interview, Parada claimed that he believes the FBI carried out a secretive dig overnight between the first and second day of the excavation, which a court authorized. He added that the gold was then secretly transported away.
Several residents in the area have said that they overheard loud noises during the night and a convoy of government vehicles and armored cars. However, the FBI announced that it did not carry out any overnight dig.
Parada and his team, which includes Warren Getler, co-author of “Rebel Gold,” are using several photos provided by the FBI in their present court battle.
Finder’s Keepers legal counsel has filed a request with a judge to have the FBI turn over its operational plans that were improperly withheld.
On the other hand, government lawyers have called for the case to be closed, claiming that the FBI had met its legal obligation to the treasure hunters to look for its records of the dig.
In addition to solving this Civil War-era mystery, Parada is also seeking to earn a hefty finders fee for the potential recovery of the gold, which could be worth more than $1.3 million at current gold prices.
While this case appears to be innocuous, the FBI continues to show why it’s such an aloof and unaccountable agency. Given the greedy and corrupt nature of this agency, one can’t put it past the FBI to have stolen this gold for its own material benefit. It’s honestly the pettiest of crimes that it’s capable of pulling off.
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