01x03 - Finders Keepers

[bunniefuu]

Tonight on beyond oak island...

We found shipwrecks. Artifacts.

The state of florida
went behind our back.

There is something
fundamentally unfair about this.

"you find something, we're
gonna not let you have it."

And it happened

with these other treasure hunts.

The japanese
were losing world w*r ii

and they have the golden budda

and they had to get it buried.

They found saxon coins

- and viking jewelry.
- They stood

to get three to five
million dollars.

Really?

All while we were growing up,

my brother and I were fascinated

with finding treasure.

Pirate treasure,

cursed treasure.

Civil w*r gold.

- -Since then,
our work on oak island

has shown us there's
a world of mysteries...

- Whoa.
- ...Waiting to be explored.

So, we like to reach out
to other treasure hunters.

X marks the spot,
right there. Brilliant.

- We want to hear their stories...
- That's right.

- ...And share our insights.
- "ill-gotten gains."

- And who knows...
- I got it.

...Maybe we can help
them with their search.

- Not only in america.
- Wow. That is gold.

- But all over the world.
- Yeah!

Beyond oak island.

So, guys,
we've filled this table, like,

several times with all
of the incredible finds

you've made here on oak island.

So, as it stands right now,

when you pull something exciting out,
what happens?

Who gets it?

If it's an artifact,
the government has dibs on it.

- They don't have to take it.
- Right, but items

that have significance
deemed by them,

it's necessary to
give those items,

turn those items
over to the province.

But if we find jewels

in their non-natural state

and metals in their
non-natural state,

we're entitled to
90% of the value of it.

But there might be

a dispute between
"artifact" and "treasure."

so, there runs the risk...

From what I'm hearing from you... Is,
okay,

"you guys get to keep treasure,
fine.

We want the historical stuff,"
basically.

But they could say, "hey,
that templar gold cross,

- that's a piece of history, so give that to us."
- yes.

- Yes, so it's a little bit fuzzy on the edges.
- Ah.

You know,
it's a little disconcerting,

'cause I can see how this
can get complicated really fast.

You know, I think of that phrase,
when we were kids, uh,

finders keepers, losers weepers.

You know what I mean? Like,
you could find it,

but not be able
to keep it. That's...

I-I can give you a real-world example,
matty.

Uh, you know,
rick and I have been fascinated

with treasure hunting.
That's no secret.

Since we were boys.

And over the years,
I've invested

in some other ventures,
and one in particular

makes a really good
story... Exactly on the point

you're talking
about... And that is

what happens when you
actually find something?

Who is the one who keeps?

Hmm.

Oh, what is it?

This could be something big.

Whoa.

In 2013,

while searching for metal
objects in the oak island swamp,

rick,
marty and members of their team

were excited to find
what appeared to be

an old spanish coin.

What the hell is that?

It's a spanish maravedí.

Yes!

Well,
we got a lot riding on this little coin.

Let's take a look
under the microscope.

Early the next year,

they brought the coin to
be cleaned and examined

at global marine exploration,
a florida-based company.

Clearly,
this leads me to believe that this thing

did spend, uh,
several hundred years

- in the swamp. - That's good.

It was during
their visit to global marine

that marty and rick were
introduced to bobby pritchett,

the company's owner,
a man with vast experience

locating artifacts and sunken
treasure off the florida coast.

I started diving in my 20s,
and I liked it so much

that it just became
not an obsession,

but, you know, just something

that I wanted
to do for a living.

I went and met and interviewed

with as many different
treasure hunters as I could,

and they were
fascinating people.

And, uh,
it kind of hooked me right in.

And from that point on,

I just kept going out
and looking for wrecks.

And eventually,
we got contracts to do the work.

Bobby pritchett's
first contract took him

to the dominican republic
in October of 2010.

We were immediately successful.

We found many
shipwrecks. Lots of artifacts.

Several months later,
we had another contract

for the east coast of
the dominican republic.

And again,
we were immediately successful

finding several shipwrecks,

and worked one specifically
called pewter wreck.

Narrator for bobby pritchett,
the so-called pewter wreck

came in the form of a
mid-16th century merchant ship,

probably spanish,
that yielded the single largest cache

of 16th-century pewter
tableware ever discovered.

It was a sunken treasure
worth millions of dollars.

Beautiful,
beautiful 500-year-old pewter

that we were able to
recover and conserve

a large amount of it. In fact,

some of it's actually in the
queen's palace in England.

So that's pretty cool.

Bobby's success
in the dominican republic

encouraged him to start his
own treasure salvage company.

The purpose of global marine

was to go out and
do the research,

survey, locate shipwrecks,
identify what's there

and then recover what we found.

Do conservation work on it

and either turn it
in to the museums

or turn it in to the auctions.

Among the potential
investors in bobby's first solo venture

were oak island treasure hunters

marty lagina and craig tester.

We went and visited them.

And they seemed very competent.

They showed us around
the stuff they'd found.

And they just
happened to be looking

for investors at the time,

so, uh,
marty and I decided to jump on board.

Besides the enormous costs,

diving on wrecks in the ocean
presents a number of other

even more daunting challenges.

It's very dangerous.

Especially if you're not
trained to use the equipment,

being out on the open sea,

a swell could come up and
it could capsize the boat.

And then you have to worry
about the sharks in the water.

And barracuda.

People can die.

But in spite of
all of the various financial,

legal and maritime obstacles..

...Bobby pritchett was convinced

that global marine
could be a success.

We went and visited
sir robert morris,

who is the godfather of
archeology and treasure hunting.

And he showed us a lot
of research that showed

the mass amount of shipwrecks

that should have
been at cape canaveral.

Because of the shoals

that are offshore
of cape canaveral,

these ships that
would be passing by,

coming up from
cuba and other places,

coming up the new bahama channel

and going back to europe,
these shoals

were so far offshore
they thought that

they were in deeper water.

They would just wreck.

So,
we started looking at cape canaveral

and asking the state
of florida for permits.

Bobby, who does things right,

needed money to do it right.

He had the permits,
but he needed money to outfit his ship,

his boat, uh,
with the proper equipment.

And so, we made a deal.

Craig and I advanced
quite a large sum of money

and joined the search.

Everyone knows about
these spanish ships carrying

all this looted treasure from
the new world back to Spain.

And the numbers are astounding.

I mean,
what these things carried.

In today's money, uh,
easily a billion dollars per ship.

After scouring the ocean bottom

over the next several years,

bobby pritchett and his partners

finally hit pay dirt.

We were finding
a lot of possible hits,

some large ones that could be cannons,
and end up finding

five or six locations that were,
uh, ships, so it was great news.

It's like, "man,
I can't believe it. We just found it."

I mean, it's quite amazing.

Archeologists confirmed

that the team had found
the untouched remnants

of five shipwrecks.

The only questions left
now were how to retrieve it

and how much was it all worth?

We had four
archeologists come in,

and they looked at the data.

They looked at their research.

And they came up
with the valuations

based on the anchors that
we found given the tonnage.

The low one was at $300 million.

The high one was
wh... At $1.2 billion.

Bobby pritchett
had risked everything,

and now it looked like
he and his investors

were about to cash in.

So...

You're not wearing any
gold bracelets or anything.

Tell me this all works out

and you made a
billion dollars with craig.

You know what, I'm sure

that marty and craig
wish they could say that.

But, uh, we'd be lying.

It-it has not

- worked out like that.
- Mm-mmm.

Just how bad did things get?

Matty, it's-it's, uh,
it's-it's not only bad,

it's worse than-than one
could have imagined, honestly.

There's a dark side to all of this,
isn't there?

- There is. - No question.

There's some major
disappointments even after

all the disappointments
that get you there.

And then you make the big find

and here comes a rash
of more disappointment.

Shortly after
applying for and receiving

all the permits needed
to locate and survey

a massive sunken treasure

off the coast of cape canaveral,
florida,

bobby pritchett
and his investors

ran into a number of problems,

chief of which was that
among the many items found

was a marble obelisk and a
16th-century bronze cannon

engraved with a
french fleur-de-lis.

You know, in my mind,
the spanish colonized florida.

What I didn't know
is that that's not true.

St. Augustine was the earliest
european settlement in florida.

But it wasn't founded
by the spanish.

It was founded by the french.

And this obelisk
that bobby found

is this very symbology
of what really happened,

I mean, priceless in the sense
of unraveling bits of history

from the state of florida.

Unfortunately, the very objects

that marty lagina
thought would be proof

of a significant historical find

proved to be bobby
pritchett's undoing.

Although he was convinced

that the ships he
found were spanish

and that the french items
were most likely plunder

that had been
captured in battle,

the state of florida saw
things very differently.

When you turn in
the report of what you found

and they see that there
are french cannon and a l...

You know, um, fleur-de-lis,

they immediately
assumed it was french.

According to
florida state authorities,

bobby pritchett had
found not just a french ship

but most likely the remains
of a long-lost sailing vessel

called la trinité,

which was part of a fleet

that had left France in 1565,

carrying 1,000 soldiers
and 100 colonists

to an outpost in
northern florida.

Florida immediately
assumed that it was la trinité

and started
communicating with France

to see how to handle
a sovereign ship.

So we submitted reports
asking for a recovery permit,

and they just eventually
stopped answering the phone.

Because the state of florida

assumed the
wreck to be la trinité,

they began basing
all future decisions

on the sunken military
craft act of 2004...

A federal act that
protects any vessel

that was on a military
mission in u.S. Waters.

This, in turn, allowed France

to claim sovereignty over
the ship and its contents.

Once we found what
they believed to be la trinité,

the state of florida
took it upon themself

to assume all the
wrecks were french.

And florida cannot give us

the permit to salvage
a foreign vessel.

But there's no actual proof

that any one of
those ships is french,

much less what
they say is la trinité.

Unfortunately,

without concrete
proof of his theory,

bobby... like the treasure
ship itself... was sunk.

In the end,
France was granted the rights

to everything bobby
pritchett had found.

It's a tough, tough situation.

Just about all my money
has gone into this business.

We got investors. The
company owes people money.

Now,
I'm the last person left in global marine.

I have to sell my house in
order to be able to survive.

It's...

Just about ruined me.

Earlier this year,

at a meeting held at
marty lagina's home

in florida, bobby pritchett

met with both marty
and craig tester

to give his partners an update

on where things stood
with the florida government

and to spell out his
legal battle with the state.

- Hey, marty. - Hey, bobby.

If the florida
authorities are successful

in claiming that the wrecks

bobby pritchett found are french

and not spanish,

the treasure hunter
stands to lose all of the time

and millions of dollars

he and his partners have
poured into their search.

Well, anyway, craig,
thanks for coming over,

because, uh,
I talked bobby into coming to tell us

about what's going
on with our investment,

- basically.
- Mm-hmm. What's the next step?

Is there a next step?

The next step is,

in florida,
to keep moving forward in the court case.

- Okay. -Okay.
- They say

that one of the ships
we found is la trinité.

- Mm-hmm.
- But I have too much research

that says it's not.

One thing is we
have a map from 1565

that was in the
library of congress

that shows where
la trinité lies.

And it shows the
name of the captain,

and it's 90 miles north of us,
and it...

But never been located physically,
right?

That's 'cause nobody
looked for it up there.

- Hmm. -Wow.
- So the ship that we found...

I don't think any
archaeologist will say,

"I'm 100% sure that
this is the trinité."

Okay, but let's say

they accept that it's
the french flagship,

and they did it right
by going to France.

What about the other four?

Are they saying all
of them are french?

Something wrong about that.

The burden of proof is on them,

and there's no proof of that.

- Right. - But even still,

if it is the trinité...

- Mm-hmm.
- I know that just because

it's sovereign immune
doesn't take our rights away

for the amount of
work that we've done.

Right.

We still did the research

and we still went out
and did all the surveying,

we identified it,
so we should be compensated

for the amount of
work that we did.

Hopefully, the judge sees it

- the way we see it.
- Yeah.

What's in it for the state
of florida? If they just...

Are they gonna get something
out of this deal with France

that they wouldn't have got
otherwise? Explain that to me.

You know, what I've read so far,

France doesn't want
the material in France.

They're gonna allow the
state of florida to keep it here.

So they'll build a museum.

And they would house
all the material there.

They'll get grants from the navy,
from noaa,

from the state,
from the federal government,

- parks and recreation.
- Yeah, okay.

But now you have to
understand that the state,

in their permit contract,
it says

that we are to get 80%

of what we recover,
and they are to get 20.

But if they don't
allow you to recover...

Well, then,
is the obvious reason

that they're gonna get it for
free instead of paying 80%?

Yes.

All they got to do is
recover it.

There's something
fundamentally unfair about this.

- Yeah.
- I mean, fundamentally unfair.

- Right.
- What's the message

from the state of florida?
If you find something,

you treasure hunters,
don't tell us?

- That's-that's right. - Yeah.

- Yeah. Right.
- Take it at 2:00 in the morning, and-and

sell it, uh,
in the black market,

because otherwise,
you're not gonna get anything.

What you're gonna
get is bankruptcy.

- Mm-hmm.
- You know, I'm not gonna say

that the money wasn't
a motivator for us

to get involved with you. It was,
you know.

But it's also for
the excitement,

- and it's also for the history.
- Yeah.

- Absolutely.
- I'm-I'm really annoyed

that we don't get to know

what really happened out there.

You don't think
it's a french ship,

but it's got these
french artifacts on it.

Well, there's a story there,
and the story's still buried.

There's something
seriously wrong with that.

Yes, there is.

With everything that's happened,
it's kind of hard

to get excited about
anything right now.

But there's still those few moments,
every once in a while,

that... That make it worthwhile.

Some of the
archaeologists have said

this is one of the most
significant finds in florida,

if not the whole united state,

because it was part of what
changed the history of florida.

And for me, you know,

it's just a great feeling
of accomplishment.

And you do sit back and say,

"damn, that was a lot of work,
but it was worth it."

and I'm gonna stay here until
we resolve these court cases.

I can't break away from this.

I'm stuck in this until I
get past these issues.

I'm just gonna have to see
what'll happen in the future.

All that work, all those hours,
all the money,

all the blood, sweat and tears,

and he finds it,
and he can't get his hands on it.

It's-it's not fair.

Yeah, but in fact, matty,

you know, governments win.
They have all the authority.

Yeah, but you can't... You can't
put everyone in the same group.

I mean, England,
for instance... And you're aware of it...

They-they have a
very enlightened policy

about treasure hunting. I mean,

gary could go over there,
metal detect,

make an incredible find,

and then, by law,
he has to inform the authorities.

But then,
the authorities can do one of two things.

They can either say,
"you can keep 50% of it

"or we will place a
monetary value on the find,

"and we will give you
50% of the... Of the worth

of the find." and then
it goes into a museum

where the world
community can experience it

and look at it and apply
historical context to it.

So,
that is a very enlightened policy.

That is brilliant. And you know what,
that's a fair policy.

- Right.
- And it's good for the people,

it's good for the country,
it's good for the searchers.

That's an enlightened policy.

At the end of the day,

everybody wins.

I mean, talk about maxims.

"everybody wins" is a great maxim,
right?

Yeah, sure it is.

Better than, "finders keepers,
losers weepers."

- yeah.
- Well, I'm telling you right now,

- the lagina brothers would settle for 50.
- Yeah.

- - well...

Oh, marty, that's good stuff.

It's funny,
though. Even if a government has

a fair treasure-hunting policy,
the other problem is

some hunters... I know of
some cases actually, I think...

Where some hunters say,
"look, if I play by the rules,

"you're gonna screw me anyway,

- so, I'm gonna do it my way."
- mm-hmm.

- And-and then you have that.
- That's just greed, matty.

"I don't want 50%. I want 100%."

- I want it all. Yup. - Right.

And you can't stop that,
can you?

Yeah,
I guess you can't legislate greed.

- No. - No, you can't.

You can't legislate
stopping criminal behavior.

You can't do that.

You can make it a crime,
and then people can choose.

I know there's a case in the u.K.,
specifically...

- Right.
- Of guys who figured, "hey, man,

we're gonna just push
this aside and do it my way."

More than 1,000 years ago,

a band of vikings
left a treasure trove

of 300 precious rings,
coins and jewelry

buried in a hillside in leominster,
England.

The trove stayed
hidden until 2015

when two men from wales,

layton davies and george powell,

dug it up while metal detecting.

The estimated
value of their find:

More than $3.8 million.

Because the hoard is a mix

of ninth and tenth
century objects,

according to britain's
1996 treasure act,

anyone who believes they
have found a metal object

300 years or older has to
report the find to authorities

within two weeks.

As far as the british
are concerned,

these objects have not
only commercial value

but great historical value

that is often worth many
times more than money.

Coins are a lot more
than just money.

Um,
most of what we know about the history

of the ancient world, uh,

comes from what
we've found on coins.

People-people like to put,

uh, what's officially important

to their culture onto money.

These coins were
from the 9th century,

which is a very,
very interesting time

in english history.

The vikings had come
and were actually at w*r

with the kingdoms
of mercia and wessex.

And those two kingdoms

struck a strategic
alliance at the time,

which is not really well
understood right now.

And there were
coins in this find

that actually have
improved our understanding

of just how that
alliance worked.

The two emperor pennies
are really quite rare.

A highly significant
historical find.

Unfortunately, the two men

decided to stay quiet

and tried to sell their treasure

to private collectors.

Eventually, they were caught.

But so far,

only 30 of the 300
coins and objects

have been recovered.

Now,
here's where it gets even more amazing,

is that our very
own gary drayton

has a direct tie to this story.

He has a direct experience
as it relates to this story.

- Hmm. - And it happened

- right around here.
- Well, as...

As only gary can tell it,
I suppose, huh?

Yeah. As a matter of fact,
why don't we talk to him?

- Great. Get him on.
- Let's do it.

Hey, gary. - Hey, gary.

- How are you?
- How you doing, chaps?

- Good to see you, as always.
- Oh. Excuse me.

Oh, what's this?

Oh,
I've got an emerald stuck in my teeth.

What's that?

Pick your emerald.

- Really?
- Yeah, I've been at it again, mate,

on the treasure coast.

You didn't find those emeralds

with a metal detector.

No, mate. That's using
my twin optical scanners.

Hey, gary, I understand

that you have some information

on those guys in England
that found those coins

but didn't turn them
in. Tell us about that.

Well,
like any good english treasure story,

it starts at the pub.

- - I'm in the mug & anchor

having a beer,

and two guys ask for a selfie.

And so we-we start talking,
and it turns out

that the guy's a
rare coin dealer.

And he tells me
that there's two guys,

they found a hoard of coins,

and they want to know if
he wanted to buy these coins.

Well, he knew it was suspicious

so he turned the deal down.

And then he read
about it in the newspaper

that these same guys

got into trouble because
they hadn't declared

the whole hoard.

They're trying to sell

a certain amount
of 'em privately.

And it's crazy,

because the hoard was
worth millions of pounds.

I think they stood
to get awarded

- probably three to five million dollars each.
- Wow.

- Aw, geez. - And to cheat

for a few hundred
thousand... It's crazy.

Well gary, I really don't feel
sorry for those guys, then.

That is a great scheme,
and if they wanted more,

they were just getting greedy.

Yeah, but not only that,
that-that stuff belongs

to the people of England.

That's what I like about the
portable antiquities scheme:

The detectorist gets paid,
the landowner gets paid,

and the people of England

get to see this
treasure in museums.

Yeah, that's very good.

That is a brilliant law,
gary, and, uh,

- remarkably consistent with human nature.
- When you

- play by the rules, everybody wins.
- Yeah,

when the rules are enlightened,
like those.

- Absolutely.
- Yeah.

- Yep, it's true.
- All right, gary,

we'll be talking
again. See you later.

Thanks a lot.

- See you, buddy.
- Thanks, gary.

See you, mate.

Here's how it all comes together,
matty.

If you look at the
statistics in England,

apparently,
in the last recent history,

90% of the historical artifacts
that now sit in museums

so the population can see them
were found by treasure hunters.

- Wow. - And that's an example

of a good policy that works.

Not archaeologists
but treasure hunters.

Treasure hunters,
yes. Not archaeologists.

You know,
we've spoken a lot here

about principled
individual behaviors

and unprincipled behaviors.

But there's a case
of a treasure find

off the coast of columbia,

a ship called the san jose,
and it

speaks eloquently to what
happens when governments

- become unprincipled.
- What it comes down to,

matty, is what we learned

Finders keepers,
losers weepers...

It's not necessarily true

when it comes to
treasure hunting.

2,000 feet beneath the waves,

off the coast of cartagena,
colombia,

near a sandy spot
called isla del tesoro...

Treasure island...

Lie the remains of a
once-great spanish galleon:

The san jose.

Known as the holy
grail of shipwrecks,

the galleon was sunk after
a disastrous naval battle

with the british in 1708.

But what makes the san
jose particularly notorious

is its cargo...

An estimated $20 billion

in gold, silver and jewels.

And, so far as anyone knows,

the vast fortune is still
in the ship's watery hold.

The san jose was in panama,

loading gold brought
up from the west coast

of south america,

and it was there for a
very long period of time,

so it stored a lot of gold,

along with several other ship.

And they all sailed for cartagena,
columbia,

at the same time.

The san jose would
have carried gold.

It would have carried silver
from the mines of potosí.

It would have carried emerald.

The british government
was aware of this fleet...

...And engaged in a battle

which resulted in the san jose

being targeted and hit

by several shots
from the british ships,

and ultimately
exploded and sank.

For nearly 300 years,

one of the largest treasure
hoards ever to set sail

was lost, but never forgotten.

In 2015,
maritime archaeology consultants

contracted with the
colombian government

and the woods hole
oceanographic institution...

The same organization

that located the remains
of the titanic in 1985...

To find the wreck.

One of the men on board
when the hunt began

was woods hole research
engineer jeff kaeli.

An expedition of this
scale is incredibly complex,

and it really comes down
to having a really good team.

Our team was archaeologists.

We had researchers
from woods hole,

members of the
colombian government,

all bringing their
specialties together

where any one of
those components

by themselves wouldn't
have been successful.

It really was a huge
collaborative effort.

Our first mission in the
summer of 2015 was successful

at finding where
the san jose was not.

And then, later that year,
at the end of 2015,

we had a second expedition,

which was successful
in finding the san jose.

But finding the san jose

was not the end of
this treasure hunt.

It was only the beginning.

So there was
an interesting thing about this.

Even if we know that the treasure is there,
whose is it?

Spain wants it.

Because it was a
spanish galleon that sunk.

Colombia says it's theirs,

because it's in their waters.

Then again,
it was taken from the incan empire.

The colombian government,

because it's in
colombian waters,

probably has the strongest
claim to the wreck...

Which I'm sure has
the strongest claim...

They also have the
biggest navy down there.

They have the biggest g*ns,
so they make the rules.

And then you have Spain,
who's saying,

"well,
it was our ship. It's our gold.

We stole that fair and square."

The san jose is

one of the most sought-after
sunken treasures in history.

But a protracted legal fight has,
so far,

prevented those who
discovered the ship's whereabouts

from recovering
its precious cargo

and profiting from their labo.

Quite literally...

We're talking about
billions of dollars

in... In treasure.

I really can't see
any of the parties

that are going to be willing

to just throw in
the towel on this.

At the same time...

More treasure, the more trouble.

The most profitable part

of the san jose is the lawyer.

From the day after it sank,

lawyers were making money
on the san jose. It's the truth.

But there is one
force that is more powerful

than any world government,

and it is even more destructive:

Mother nature.

While the fight over the
san jose rages on land,

the treasure... Worth
billions of dollars...

Is slowly dissolving

in the warm,
salty waters off the colombian coast.

Every day goes by is
another day there's less of it.

It's the law of nature.
It just happens.

Saltwater environment is
not a conducive environment

to man-made objects.

I look at it as,
we're just clearing the ocean floor

of previous man's clutter.

It doesn't belong there.
Let's get it out of there.

I mean,
when you see a story like that, guys,

does that give you pause

in how you proceed here,
who you deal with?

Well, who we deal with,
certainly.

You try, you always try and
find people of integrity. I mean,

- but how do you know, you know?
- Sure. Right.

Rick and I have a saying that,
uh, when it comes to shysters,

- the good ones are good.
- Are really good. -Yeah, yeah.

They ooze credibility, you know,
so you have to be on your guard.

But, you know,

generally speaking,
most people are... Bona fide.

- Yeah, they're principled.
- Yeah.

And I think good karma attracts good karma,
I guess.

It's one, uh, somewhat naive way to say it,
but it's true.

I mean,
if you behave with honor and integrity,

it draws people to you.

And I lay it at-at the
feet of that principle.

Guys,
what about world w*r ii treasures?

Have you been
interested in that at all?

- Oh, my goodness. - Oh...

World w*r ii, you know,
launched enough treasure stories

to keep anybody occupied
for the rest of their lives.

I mean,
treasure got pilfered all over the place

by the nazis, by the russians.

- Have you heard of the golden buddha?
- I have not.

- I've heard of yamashita's gold, is it in reference to that?
- It is.

It's a story that continues
to unfold as we speak

and, in some cases,

truth is almost stranger
than fiction with this thing.

On September 19, 1931,

slightly more than a decade

before the attack
on pearl harbor...

...The japanese imperial
army invaded china.

And began a relentless campain

to strip the neighboring
nation of billions of dollars

worth of diamonds
and precious metals.

It was done as part
of a strategic program

known as golden lily.

The japanese were
largely interested

in precious metals and gems.

They wanted to change the state,
so they had

to smelt it and put them

in 75 kilo bars,
so 165-pound bars.

Pretty heavy to lift.

And that's how they
would more easily

get them transported back.

According to some historians,

as the second world w*r ended
and the allies were closing in,

the japanese were
desperate to find a safe place

for their enormous
stash of stolen loot.

Their solution?

To hide it in the philippines,

which was then under
military occupation

under the command of
general tomoyuki yamashita.

A lot of it was still

in the philippines
at that point in time,

but it was in places

that weren't as
secure as they wanted.

So they pulled
yamashita and said,

"your goal is to
buy us enough time

"in order to get all
the treasures buried

before we fall to, uh,
macarthur's army."

On October 20,1944,

general douglas macarthur,
the supreme commander

of the southwest pacific forces,

waded ashore at leyte,
an island in the philippines

and with him came
the power and might

of the u.S. Sixth army.

The end of the
japanese imperial army's

reign of terror had begun.

Two years later,
japanese general yamashita

was tried for w*r
crimes and ex*cuted.

But with his death came
the discomforting realization

that the location
of billions of dollars

worth of gold and jewels
would be forever buried with him.

For the next 25 years,

the legend of yamashita's
lost treasure was a popular

subject of speculation
in the philippines.

It seemed no one
knew where it was.

No one, until 1971.

Rogelio roxas, or roger roxas,
was a locksmith.

Uh, just a simple guy.

And near his home,

he was wandering around in
the woods that he grew up in,

which happened to be state lands,
he came across a tunnel

and when he went into
that tunnel and explored,

he found boxes.

And in those boxes,
he found gold bullion

and he found a gold buddha,

and in the buddha there was a lot of gems,
different gems.

Roger roxas' discovery
quickly became big news.

But not everyone that came
to see his newly-found treasure

was happy for him.

At the time of roxas' discovery,

the philippines was ruled
by ferdinand marcos...

- A ruthless dictator.
- When marcos

found out that he
had this treasure,

including the golden buddha,

within a week, marcos sends in

his team of th*gs.

Compelled by greed,

marcos imprisoned
and tortured roxas.

The golden buddha and
more than a dozen gold bars

were confiscated.

But what marcos really
wanted was for roxas to reveal

exactly where he found
the golden buddha.

Months and then years went by.

Repeatedly,
roxas would be released from prison

only to be brought
back in and tortured

until he would reveal

the golden buddha's
original hiding place.

Eventually,
marcos got the information

he was looking for.

To me,
it's clear that in marcos' life

that he had a
penchant for this gold.

Had to keep it secret

and I believe that his wealth

is predominantly based
on these gold finds

and converting it
into a dollar value

in whatever banks
he keeps it in.

But the bitter fight

between roxas and
marcos didn't end there.

After the dictator
lost power in 1986,

roxas slapped
marcos with a lawsuit

in order to recover what
was left of his treasure.

The golden buddha corporation,

which was rogelio
roxas' corporation,

uh, won the lawsuit.

The total value that
was awarded to him

was $22 billion,

which at that point in time
was the largest judgment

ever rendered in
the united states.

Of course,
that would seem to be the very

happy ending to a
very bizarre story.

But, unfortunately, it wasn't,

as roger roxas had died just

as the trial was about to start.

To make matters worse,
not even his heirs

would get to collect
on the judgment,

as the court later overturned
the compensation award

on the grounds that the
value of the recovered treasure

was virtually impossible
to properly calculate.

But even so,

the story still
doesn't end there.

Although the place where
roxas found the golden buddha

remains unknown, several other
places where general yamashita

hid his vast treasure
have been found.

It's impossible
to put a price on the treasure.

What marcos alone had
recovered at one point in time

was estimated
to be $100 billion.

There are still a lot of
sites to be recovered.

So people are still out there,

every day looking for
gold in the philippines.

And the search
continues on to this day.

There's so
many lessons in all these

stories that we've
been talking about.

They-they all seem to be
ending up in the court, somehow.

They all seem to
be a bit of a mess.

And, you know,
I-I didn't ask you...

What did happen
to bobby pritchett?

Where does he stand right now?

Can he get his
hands on his treasure?

You want to talk about a mess... No,
he's got nothing.

His investors have
gotten nothing.

He's pretty, well,
sort of broken, in a sense.

I mean,
certainly in a financial sense.

He lost his boats,
um, all of them.

- Wow.
- And, uh, he's got nothing.

Well, he lost the ability
to do what he loves doing.

- Yeah... Yeah.
- That's really the key.

There's still a story
component to this.

And I am dismayed
by the fact that

that story currently resides
at the bottom of the ocean.

- The story remains untold, and that always bothers me.
- Yeah.

Right? It's a rich story.

You know it better than I.

Part of it's not told...
It's still covered in sand.

- Exactly. - But we know

that there's some
really important

historical artifacts
on that shipwreck,

regardless of who prevails

- and whose ship it was,
- right.

- There's some real history and it should be revealed.
- Yeah.

That alone could
change what we know

about the history of florida,
for example.

- Yes.
- Might change the history books, literally.

- Yeah.
- And it's just sitting there.

You'd think the archeologists
would be all over that.

Right? - Marty: yeah.

I want to comment on one thing
about oak island that you said.

You know,
"does it give us pause?"

it... Yes, it gives us pause

in one sense, because,

you know, there's a lot of
money been spent on oak island

and if we end up
getting nothing or just

a big fight when we
actually make a find,

that's-that's an
upsetting thought.

And the truth is I don't think

that if that were to happen...

We make a great
find of "treasure"...

I will sit in this chair
until I am nothing but dust

and believe that there's a
way to reach a compromise

- with this. - Yeah.

I think the government here
in canada has been great.

- Absolutely.
- We've got, um, you know,

I mean, they're-they're tough.

But overall, very cooperative.

I've always said that we are
stewards of a great mystery

less than owners of
a mysterious island.

And, uh,
I'll go to my grave thinking

that that's an
important facet of this.

It's not just the treasure hunt,
it's a storytelling hunt.

And I think it's very,
very important, and I think if

these other treasure hunts
focused a little bit more

on that than on actual
treasure retrieval,

I think all parties
would be better for it.

There's a lot
of stories out there.

And precious few where
the successful treasure hunter

became wealthy and happy.

There's a lot
that are just the opposite.

Wow. That's real sad.

But it mustn't
keep you from moving forward.

Amen.

Either with our shields

or dead upon them.