August 10 2008 UK Bogus bends nets Divers £250,000  A pair of divers swindled £250,000 (US$500,000) from the National Health Service for treating bogus cases of the bends.  David Welsh, 49, and diving instructor Michael Brass, 43, are facing prison sentences after being found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the NHS and perverting the course of justice. Welsh ran the Fort Bovisand diving centre, which had its own recompression chamber.  They paid strangers they met in pubs up to £200 to pose as divers who needed recompression treatment, they only needed only the real names, addresses, dates of birth and national insurance numbers of the supposed victims to work the fraud. Most had never been underwater and some could barely swim.  Welsh billed National Health Trusts from all over the UK £6,500 a time for treating the 37 fake victims.  The fraud was discovered when police investigated two cases of divers from Liverpool who were supposedly treated for the bends at the recompression chamber.    Full story...

August 25 2008 HawaiiArchaeologists have located British whaler sunk by bad weather in 1837 off Kure Atoll Artefacts from the remains of a wreck believed to be of the British whaling vessel Gledstanes lost for 171 years have been found off Kure Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The artefacts include four large anchors, cannons and cannonballs. The Gledstanes is the fourth whaling vessel found in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, evidence of the area's significance as a 19th-century whaling area.  The divers who found the shipwreck were taking part in the 2008 Maritime Heritage Expedition, sponsored by NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries.  Full story...

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News October 17, 2007

Spain

Second Vessel Seized 
A second ship belonging to the Florida treasure hunting company Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc., which is embroiled in a court battle with Spain over a US$500-million sunken treasure has been seized by Spanish police.

Spain's Civil Guard said officers approached the vessel, the Odyssey Explorer, as it left the British colony of Gibraltar and as soon as it entered Spanish waters, the vessel was ordered to the nearby Spanish port of Algeciras for inspection.

The Civil Guard said it was acting on an order from a Spanish judge who, in June, instructed authorities to seize two vessels belonging to Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. if the vessels left Gibraltar. Another Odyssey vessel, Ocean Alert, was seized in July and released after a week.

 "At this point, we are awaiting word from the Spanish judge about the inspection," Odyssey co-chairman Greg Stemm said in Florida "We had again invited Spanish officials to inspect the Explorer in advance of our departure and they chose not to take us up on it."

The dispute began when Odyssey, a Tampa, Florida-based company that specializes in deep-sea explorations, announced the discovery of a colonial-era shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean in May.

The find yielded more than 500,000 silver coins weighing more than 15 tonnes along with gold coins, worked gold and other artefacts. The haul was flown by Odyssey to the United States from Gibraltar.

Spain filed claims in a US federal court over the find, arguing that if the shipwrecked vessel was Spanish - or removed from its waters - the treasure belongs to Spain.

Odyssey insists the shipwreck, codenamed "Black Swan," was outside any country's territorial waters - but has not given its exact location or the name of the ship.

"We are sure that the Spanish government is now well aware that the (shipwreck) was not in Spanish waters and that the disposition of the coins is now subject to US federal court jurisdiction, so we're not sure what the inspection of the Explorer is meant to accomplish," said Stemm.

 
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