KOROR, Palau (30 Mar 2006) -- Five divers have been charged with stealing underwater artifacts, but they have been released after posting bail. According to court records, Cameron James Avenell and Ian McCombe each posted $100,000. David Tansey posted $50,000 while Matthew Young and Richard Sumor each posted $25,000. The five pleaded not guilty to the 29-count criminal charges filed by government prosecutors. The charges range from damaging historical site or cultural property, to violation of the Palau Lagoon Monument Act, grand larceny, malicious mischief, possession or removal of government property, conversion of public funds and property, improper removal territorial waters and conspiracy. According to the affidavit of probable cause, Henerik Rall had a conversation with the staffer of the Lionwind that the defendants reportedly had been diving at the various shipwrecks in Palau waters and had been removing artifacts from a shipwreck called Amatsu. The affidavit stated that Rall was shown a photograph of one of the Lionwind crewmembers who removed a porthole from the shipwreck. The police later obtained a warrant to search Lionwind. During the course of their search, officers recovered several items believed to be from shipwrecks in Palau. The search, according to the affidavit, resulted in the recovery of a porthole, a compass, a frame, lanterns, light bulb covers and porthole frames. The officers also removed equipment and tools used to clean the artifacts. All these items were recovered, marked, tagged and placed in the Division of Patrol's evidence room. Avenell admitted to the police that he had been diving in Palau's waters and removing items from the shipwrecks. Avenell told police that he dove at the Amatsu wreck on Feb. 9, 2006 with Young and removed a big porthole from the wreck. A week later, they removed a compass frame from the Ryuku wreck and on March 12 with Tansey they removed two lanterns from the wreck. On March 21, they dove at an unidentified wreck and took a porthole frame from it wreck. SOURCE - Palau Horizon | | Liars and looters Leigh Bishop and Brad Sheard. Following the lead of dive industry-endorsed shipwreck looters Bishop and Sheard, scuba diving thieves around the world are destroying wrecks for bragging rights, coffee table displays and internet auction profits that amount to a fraction of the revenue shipwrecks can generate as fully protected underwater museums. FROM THE EDITORS OF CDNN Despite dive industry 'take pictures, leave only bubbles' green-wash, a small but strident group of scuba diving looters steal artifacts from shipwrecks under the guise of 'archaeological exploration', and aggressively compete for bragging rights, product endorsements and profits from the sales of stolen artifacts that are now on a par with those from smuggling humans and drugs. "We do not care about Leigh Bishop and Brad Sheard's personality problems, their hate-mongering web sites, their chat room shenanigans nor their crude attempts to blackmail responsible, eco-friendly dive companies that support full protection of marine wildlife and shipwrecks," said CDS President Evan T. Allard. "Such unscrupulous conduct is beneath contempt and serves only to substantiate accusations that Bishop and Sheard have committed crimes and will continue to do so unless authorities step in." "The fact is that the vast majority of the global scuba diving community opposes shipwreck looting and underwater grave robbing, and with good reason," Allard added. "For scuba divers, every shipwreck is an underwater museum to be fully protected for our children, our grandchildren and all future generations of divers who will dive deeper and longer thanks to ongoing improvements in diving technology ," Allard said. CYBER DIVER ALERT | If you have information pertaining to the theft and/or sale of wreck artifacts, or desecration of underwater grave sites by Leigh Bishop, Brad Sheard, organized crime gangs or anyone else, please contact CDNN immediately and your information will be passed along to appropriate authorities. REPORT SCUBA LOOTER |
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