Treasure hunters taking legal action against FBI, alleging coverup

Dents Run, PA — Dennis and Kem Parada, co-owners of a treasure hunting group called Finders Keepers, claims they detected several pounds of gold dating back to the Civil War Era in Elk County.

After a day long excavation of the site in Dents Run, the FBI claimed that they did not find any gold.

"We were told by Mr. Archer you don't put anything on Facebook, you don't go to the media you don't say anything to anybody or they'll be serious repercussions," said Kem Parada, Co-Owner of Finder's Keepers.

Two and a half years ago, William Cluck, the lawyer for the father-son duo, filed a Freedom of Information request to the FBI requesting relevant documents pertaining to this case.

"They finally responded in August of 2019 and said they have 2,378 pages of documents and 17 video tapes. However because I was not willing to reduce the size of the request they put it into the pile that says it's going to take 48 months to respond," said William Cluck, lawyer for Finder's Keepers.

Since filing that request in 2019, he said they haven't even assigned a government employee to review the request.

Today he filed a petition with the Director of Public Affairs for the DOJ requesting expedited processing of this FOIA request.

Cluck said the public has a right to know how much money was spent on the excavation and what happened to the suspected gold.

"Under law the FBI and DOH has ten calendar days to respond to my request if they deny the request we'll reach out to Senator Bob Casey to request his involvement," he said.

The Paradas hope these legal actions get them closer to the answers they've been searching for for years.

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