Police have raided the workplaces of a South Korean corporate which claims to have found a treasure-encumbered shipwreck.
Shinil Crew stated in July that it had discovered the Russian cruiser Dmitrii Donskoi, which sank in 1905 and was once rumoured to carry gold worth billions of greenbacks.
Speculation has when you consider that unfold that the alleged in finding might need been a rip-off to trick traders.
Shinil chief Choi Yong-seok has been banned from leaving South Korea.
Treasure hunters have looked for the Dmitrii Donskoi for many years, and the announcement of its discovery in July made headlines around the globe.
Image copyright Shinil Staff Symbol caption Shinil Group says that is the nameplate of the sunken Donskoi
The cruiser was scuttled via its staff in 1905 after Japan’s victory in the Fight of Tsushima – a key second of the Russo-Eastern War.
Ever on the grounds that, rumours have endured that the send was once carrying TWO HUNDRED tonnes of gold for Russia’s Pacific Fleet, to pay team salaries and docking fees.
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If real, the gold on board could be price billions of greenbacks these days.
First suspicions
Experts have raised doubts that Russia would ever have put that a lot gold on a unmarried vessel, when it could have carried the valuable shipment more safely by rail to its eastern port of Vladivostok.
in step with South Korean news agency Yonhap, Shinil’s assertion was once quickly followed through suspicions it will be working a scam.
The company has faced allegations of looking to artificially boost proportion costs, or seduce investors into shopping for a crypto-currency issued through a Singaporean company, also named Shinil Group.
Choi Yong-seok, CEO of the South Korean company, has insisted the 2 corporations are unconnected – although their founders are siblings, AFP reviews.
South Korean media report that the Shinil Crew based there was shaped just before the ship to find used to be announced, and used to be running on an overly small capital base – no longer even enough to use for salvage rights, that are 10% of a in finding’s estimated price.
Image caption The cruiser used to be scuttled near Ulleungdo
Yonhap reports that the send’s alleged treasure used to be to begin with claimed to be value 130tr received ($116bn, £89bn) but in subsequent documents for the excavation approval, the price was once diminished to 1.2bn gained.