By Tim Binnall
A years-long legal battle between a pair of treasure hunters and the FBI over a mysterious dig for an apocryphal horde of Civil War gold has reportedly concluded, but the circumstances surrounding the event remain shrouded in mystery. The contentious dispute began way back in March of 2018 when dozens of federal agents descended upon a spot in a Pennsylvania state forest where Dennis Parada and his son Ken believed a bevy of gold bars had been buried over 150 years ago. When the FBI ended the excavation after a few days and asserted that nothing had been found, the treasure hunters grew suspicious and, after tangling with local authorities about the matter for months, ultimately sued the Justice Department in the hopes of finding some answers.
In the years that followed, the family achieved various legal victories that provided them with an array of compelling records from the 2018 dig that further convinced them that the legendary Civil War gold had been secretly recovered. "The information we've got from the FBI files is very damaging," Dennis Parada explained, "it's a massive cover-up. It's sloppy work. I’m surprised they even put it in their files." After besting the Bureau in court yet again this past April, the treasure hunters reportedly settled with the Department of Justice this week. The terms of the deal saw the treasure hunters receive $52,000 for legal expenses in exchange for them ending their pursuit for answers from the FBI.
While Parada expressed some measure of pride at having taken on and defeated the federal government, he conceded that what exactly unfolded in March of 2018 is still a maddening mystery. To that end, the treasure hunter indicated that their years-long quest will continue, albeit in a different form, as the family now plans to sue the Philadelphia branch of the U.S. Mint. "We're going to have to drag the Mint into federal court and get pictures and videos of all the gold that would enter that building," he said, "$1.1 billion in gold disappeared, and nobody's asking any questions except us. This isn't right."