A Pennsylvania lawyer is investigating whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation found $400 million worth of Civil War gold nearly three years ago and subsequently lied about the discovery and covered it up.
The lawyer, William Cluck, said a magistrate judge in Harrisburg sealed documents from the public in a March 2018 excavation involving the FBI, PennLive reported. Cluck wants the judge to unseal the documents related to the case.
Cluck is representing Finders Keepers LLC, a treasure-hunting company he says reported the possibility of gold in the Dent’s Run area of Elk County to federal authorities.
He claims the FBI is refusing to tell Finders Keepers if any gold was found, adding that if it was, his clients are entitled to a portion of the treasure.
The FBI claims nothing was found at the site, though Cluck said he is skeptical because the agency’s Art Crimes Division was involved. He added that the FBI sealed the documents in the case, claiming it is an ongoing criminal investigation.
“They had 50 agents there. … We have witnesses that they were there all night with armored cars. So, what are we supposed to believe?” said Cluck. “We are convinced that they found gold.”
Cluck has secured a Right-to-Know Law appeal to Commonwealth Court to petition the judge to unseal the records regarding the case.
The search for the potential horde of gold at the site stems from the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. Treasure hunters have been dazzled for 156 years by a legend dating back to the Civil War era, which claims the Union Army was moving a shipment of gold, 26 or 52 bars weighing 50 pounds each, from Wheeling, West Virginia, to Philadelphia.
As the story goes, the gold was never delivered nor found.
In a statement to Washington Examiner, the FBI denied anything was found at the excavation site.
“In March 2018, the FBI launched the court-authorized excavation of what evidence suggested may have been a cultural heritage site at Dents Run in Elk County, Pennsylvania. Nothing was found in the excavation. The FBI unequivocally rejects any claims or speculation to the contrary,” the bureau said in a statement.
