Bill Green – WCSH6

Bill Green called me to ask for an on-camera interview which I declined because of advice from my attorney. My attorney said, and I have to agree, that the press can edit the tape and make you appear guilty. I have watched Bill on channel 6 for many years and in fact, he has done a story or two on our projects in the past. I think Bill is a stand-up guy and a good reporter. One of Bill’s good friends is Denny Denham who was also a partner of ours in our Florida project, the Deliverance. I’m not sure why Bill decided to do “that” story that started the bad press period on me but it seems Denny had a hand in it. I will agree that the Deliverance project did not turn out as we had hoped. The Spanish government hired a Washington DC law firm to claim the wreck from us. We did not have the resources to fight them in the courts and had to walk away.

Normally you would lose any stake you had in that project but my partner John Hardy sr. and I met with our attorney and had papers drawn up that brought all our partners in the Deliverance project into the Port Nicholson project. We wanted to protect everyone that had faith enough in us in that project to be rewarded with the next project at no cost to them. Our attorney said we were under no obligation to do this but we felt it was right.

We had not heard from Denny since the Deliverance project, not a call nor email. We had our attorney contact him because we needed his signature on the new agreement to bring him into this new project. Denny never signed.  Why? Why was he so hostile in Bill Greens piece on the news? Why did he not tell Bill about our offer to include him in the new project? Lot’s of questions and not many answers.

Eric Russell – Portland Press Herald

Eric is a staff writer for PPH. The PPH is located at 1 City Center in Portland Me. The attorneys for the UK have their office at 1 City Center also.

Eric leads the charge of bad press against us in the stories the PPH printed. He reported things that the UK attorneys knew that no one else knew so one would expect that he got his information from them. Not a problem if what he reported were true, but it wasn’t. Most were from a disgruntled ex-employee that even the judge didn’t want any more testimony from. Eric met with 2 crew members that still worked aboard the Sea Hunter that wanted the truth told, Brian Ryder – Chief Engineer and Edward Borges – 2nd engineer. They met at McDonald’s and the whole interview was recorded by Ed. Eric asked a lot of questions and both answered every one he asked. They told him how the ex-disgruntled employee told the crew that if he ever got laid off or let go that he would see to it that I would get screwed one way or the other. They also told Eric why that ex-employee was let go, how he had given secret info to several people, how certain needed equipment kept breaking down etc.

But guess what! Eric did not print one thing the guys said. We have the recording….. the question is simple, why did Eric not follow through and check what our guys told him so he had a factual story to write? Eric chooses to follow what the UK attorneys wanted him to write instead of the truth.

This is a post-Eric made to treasurenet forum:

When someone answered “so you are only interested in the side of the story that supports your opinion.
Interesting take on journalism.
Best of luck.

His reply:

He says it’s easy finding supporters of me and my company but very difficult to find naysayers. Hummmm, maybe, just maybe we are the good guys. What disturbs me most is the fact that we wanted to feed all the hungry kids in Maine with our share of any recoveries and both Eric and the UK attorneys that are Mainers fought so hard to get us off the wreck. I understand the attorneys, they only care that they get their hourly fee. The press should have dug deeper and told the truth. But I guess real journalism is dead….