A New York investor group that unknowingly financed a phony treasure hunt for emeralds dating back to the 1600s filed a lawsuit last week in a Florida federal court alleging Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor and firm attorney Bruce L. Silverstein attempted to profit from the scheme.
The investor group, Azalp LLC, alleged in court documents Silverstein and the law firm aided and abetted treasure hunter Jay Miscovich’s fabricated discovery of precious emeralds dumped into the Gulf of Mexico supposedly originating from a 17th-century shipwreck. Miscovich claimed the emeralds were worth half-a-billion dollars.
