The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL 

Tribune Business Editor 

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamas-based underwater explorer is accusing its legal opponent of seeking to “harass” it through allegations it conducted treasure hunting off Mayaguana without obtaining the required government permits.

David Concannon, attorney and spokesperson for Allen Exploration Group (AEG), told Tribune Business that the innuendo-based claims by Daniel Porter, the Freeport-headquartered principal of Maritime Research & Recovery (MRR), were nothing more than a “deflection” and attempt to distract from the parties’ core dispute over the salvaging of an estimated $1.5bn in treasure from another wreck in Bahamian waters.

The assertions about unauthorised exploration in the southern Bahamas, which allegedly resulted in the recovery of “gold or silver coins”, are contained in legal documents filed on January 6, 2025, with the south Florida federal court by Mr Porter and MRR in their ongoing battle with Allen Exploration over separate salvage efforts surrounding the sunken Spanish galleon, Nuestra Senora de la Maravillas.

As part of the legal ‘discovery’ process, where both parties seek documents and other evidence relevant to the case from each other, Mr Porter and MRR demanded on November 21, 2024, that Allen Exploration produce “a copy of all photos or videos” showing the latter’s principal, Carl Allen, “swimming or diving in waters surrounding Mayaguana island, Bahamas, in 2023”.

Mr Allen has financed the multi-million dollar revival of Walker’s Cay in the Abacos, and Mr Porter also sought “a copy of all photos or videos” of the Texan investor “holding gold or silver coins recovered by any person from the waters surrounding Mayaguana island, Bahamas, in 2023”.

Not surprisingly, this was resisted by Mr Allen and his exploration company. “Defendant objects to this request on the grounds that the topics related to the recovery of artifacts from the waters around Mayaguana island in 2023 are not relevant to any of the claims or defences asserted in this lawsuit,” they retorted.

“Defendants never contracted with plaintiffs to search the waters around Mayaguana island, nor were plaintiffs [Mr Porter and MRR] involved in any such recovery on behalf of plaintiffs if it occurred. Discovery on this topic is not proportional to the needs of the case, the burden or expense of the proposed discovery will likely outweigh its benefit, the discovery is being sought merely to harass the defendants.”

Mr Porter and MRR, though, hit back through their January 6, 2025, legal filings in which they implied Mr Allen and Allen Exploration had been treasure hunting off Mayaguana without the necessary government approvals and permits.

Asserting that they had “agreed to limit the number of videos and photos of Carl Allen diving or searching the waters off Mayaguana island, as well as holding found treasure”, Mr Porter and MRR argued that the evidence sought was relevant to their central allegation that they have not been paid their rightful $1.5m-$2m share of some $10m in artifacts and treasure recovered from the Nuestra wreck.

“If true, Carl Allen and Allen Exploration searching and recovering treasure from a different sunken ship, in an area they did not have government approval to search/recover in, would be a violation of Bahamian law and counter the defendants’ claims of good character as raised in the pleadings. It would also be relevant to plaintiffs’ affirmative defence that the defendants have ‘unclean hands’ in this matter.”

However, Mr Allen and Allen Exploration, in their own legal filings on December 23, 2024, argued that Mr Porter has zero credibility because he is “a convicted felon with a 30-year criminal history that includes multiple arrests and convictions”.

Mr Concannon, speaking to Tribune Business, said the accusations of unauthorised treasure exploration off Mayaguana and alleged recovery of “gold and silver” coins were merely an attempt by Mr Porter and MRR to deflect and distract from the fact their original claim against Allen Exploration has “reached a dead end”.

“It’s a deflection. It’s not relevant to the case,” he blasted. “If they’re exploring off Mayaguana they’ll get a permit, do whatever the law requires... The good news is that Mr Allen is happy with where he is with the Bahamian government, and if anything needs to be fixed, it will be fixed. He’s done what he said he’s going to do, and is reinvesting more money. He’s fine.

“The good news is that we got rid of the bad apple out of the bunch, and if there are any more we’ll get rid of them, too.” Calling for all energies to be focused on “the real issues in the case”, Mr Concannon signalled Allen Exploration’s belief that Mr Porter’s legal action is merely an effort to harass or coerce the undersea explorer into paying out his financial demands.

“Mr Allen is not going to reward that behaviour and is not going to submit to blackmail,” Mr Concannon told this newspaper. “Porter’s new motion relates to allegations that are not actually part of the case, but he would like to make them part of the case to deflect from the actual issue, which is whether Porter and MRR had an oral agreement with Allen Exploration to share artifacts from the Maravillas. They did not.”

Allen Exploration has also countered with some thinly-veiled discovery demands of its own, demanding that Mr Porter and MRR admit or deny that they “have never paid Bahamian Customs duties” on the vessels they imported into this nation or the “furniture, personal property and materials” brought in since November 2019. And it is demanding he produce copies of all Customs declarations for the past six years.

Mr Concannon, meanwhile, argued that “Porter and MRR can’t seem to decide what the agreement with Allen Exploration is supposed to be” as they have since sought to amend their Florida lawsuit - a move that the underwater explorer is opposing.

“Plaintiffs cannot decide what this case is about or what the facts should be to support their claims,” Allen Exploration asserted. “After they were caught trying to hide the existence of a written agreement governing the parties’ relationship, their choice of Texas as the appropriate forum and law applying to any disputes, and the dubious nature of their claim that defendants have breached a series of oral agreements, the plaintiffs have moved to amend their complaint solely to add legal conclusions couched as factual allegations to sweeten the damages they hope to recover, and to add different facts that materially alter the deal they supposedly made with defendants.

“In other words, now that plaintiffs’ have reached a dead end with their original allegations, they want a ‘do over’. Although leave to amend a pleading ordinarily is ‘freely given when justice so requires’, none of the bases for allowing leave to amend or supplement a pleading are present here. Moreover, plaintiffs’ proposed amendments are made in bad faith, with a dilatory motive and, significantly, the amendments would be futile.”

Mr Porter, in initiating legal action, alleged that Mr Allen and Allen Exploration sought to hire his expertise and skills to assist with the Nuestra exploration and recovery because they lacked the necessary knowledge at that time. He claims the two parties agreed “a treasure recovery operation” where Mr Porter and his firm would receive 30 percent of the artifacts recovered once the Bahamian government had taken its share.

The Spanish galleon, according to Mr Porter, is estimated to have sunk with a $5bn fortune at today’s values with some $1.5bn in gold and silver thought to remain unrecovered. He, though, is alleging that Mr Allen and Allen Exploration have reneged on their deal and are now refusing to pay MRR’s rightful share of $10m in “undivided treasure” that has been recovered.

Asserting that he and MMR are due between $1.5m-$2m from these recoveries, Mr Porter is also claiming that Allen Exploration has seized intellectual property worth $20m in the form of a map and recovery plan he produced for not only the Nuestra’s $1.5bn but a second Spanish treasure galleon, the Genovese, which was part of the same Spanish fleet and also sank in Bahamian waters centuries ago.

However, Mr Allen and Allen Exploration countered by asserting  their contractor “failed to use money he was given to pay the Government for multiple work permits to pay for any work permit except his own”. They also alleged he used their money to pay personal expenses, while using vessels and crew hired by AEX on salvage work for others while “rarely” going to explore the Nuestra site in winter despite being paid to do so.

And Mr Allen and Allen Exploration are also asserting that Mr Porter and his company have repeatedly refused to return their “unique and confidential search data acquired over the past five seasons at a cost of millions of dollars”. They claim they have already incurred “substantial harm”, including “reputational damage with the Government of The Bahamas”.

“It is worth noting that Dan Porter is a convicted felon with a 30-year criminal history that includes multiple arrests and convictions for possession of marijuana, obtaining property in return for a worthless cheque, domestic violence, violation of domestic violence injunctions, violation of probation and trespass,” they alleged in their December 23, 2024, legal filings.

“The court may also consider this evidence in evaluating the plaintiffs’ motives and credibility.”