How One Treasure Hunter Got Screwed Out of a Fortune | Joe Rogan and Forrest Galante

Now, let me pose this to you. So I know a guy, he's a treasure hunter by trade. Very cool old guy, Australian guy, lived in Perth. And for years, he's like, I know where this certain Spanish ship went down. Long story short, he finds it, right? Digs up one single gold coin, and he's like, it's here. I know it's here. Big spear fisherman, adventure guy, goes, spends tens of thousands of dollars. He's not a rich man. Spends tens of thousands of dollars, gets all this excavator equipment, goes to this very remote area of northwestern Australia, pulls up something like $10 million worth of treasure, takes it home, legally declares it all, tells the government, gets all confiscated. They give him three or four pieces. You can see his treasure in the museum in Perth. Here's this guy who would have retired, been a wealthy man, you know, had his whole life taken care of because of this thing he was obsessed with and then found, and then got the tools on his own dime to go and get it, declares it, and has it confiscated. Dude. Well, that's weird because you find stuff in the ocean, and they take it, and people become billionaires, right? They find Russian or Roman ships filled with gold coins. But for whatever reason, this was considered historically valuable. So it was taken for the museum, right? And he got, yeah, a few coins and no money. I got to look up the guy's name. I know a similar story. It's happened in America. The guy that went to hunt it got investors. And when he got the gold, he just kept it. When investors asked for the money, he said, I don't know what you're talking about. I lost it, or I don't know where I put it, or I don't know where it is. So I think he's currently in jail under contempt of court. Being asked, where is it? And he said, I don't know. He's taking lie detector tests. People think his kids have it or something like that, but they have no idea where it is. That's a crazy story. Well, that's a weird one too because, like, what are you going to do with it? Like, if people are staring at you, they're like constantly looking. Where is it? Where is it? You're like, I don't have it. They're going to keep looking. How much is it worth? Millions. I think each coin might be worth a million. You might have something like 20 to 30 of them. It's like a lot of money. It's insane. Well, you got to bring it to someone who's going to give you a piece. You know, you got to bring it to someone, but then you're going to get caught. Where'd you get the five million bucks? Exactly. Oh, I found it. Yeah, what do you do? Well, it's interesting when things are historical, right? You don't know, like, who, does it belong to a museum? Does it belong to the person who finds it? Right. Like, what are the rules, and are we making these rules up as we go along? Yeah. It's worth 20 million. Here's, I found a story. It's still in jail right now. Wow. Jailed treasure hunter ordered to pay nearly 20 million. Tommy Thompson. Tommy Thompson's not the kind of guy. Yeah. That sounds like the kind of guy.