By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A treasure hunter’s “trade secrets” - including dealings with the Bahamian government over artifacts from a multi-billion dollar wreck - are under the control of a rogue contractor with an alleged 30-year criminal history.

Dr Michael Pateman, curator and laboratory director for the Freeport-based Bahamas Maritime Museum, has disclosed that records detailing these artifacts’ division between Allen Exploration Group (AEG) and the Bahamian government are now controlled by Daniel Porter - the very person who was fired by the treasure hunter in July 2024.

And, despite Allen Exploration’s demands that Mr Porter return what it describes as “proprietary data”, including details “on the potential recovery of other shipwreck sites” in Bahamian territorial waters, the latter has exploited the fact he set up the Dropbox folder storing these files to lock Dr Pateman and his former employer out amid their ongoing $1.5m legal dispute. 

Dr Pateman, who has been employed by Allen Exploration Group (AEG) and its multi-millionaire owner, Carl Allen, the Walker’s Cay owner, since 2020, asserted in a January 24, 2025, affidavit that his responsibilities include overseeing salvage and recovery work on the sunken-Spanish treasure galleon, Nuestra Senora de la Maravillas, which is thought to have been transporting treasure worth $1.5bn when it was wrecked.

These obligations, he added, extend to “the preservation, cataloguing and curation of artifacts and the company’s interactions with the Government of The Bahamas on matters related to the salvage, permitting and division of artifacts”.

“Documents and records pertaining  to Allen Exploration’s operations conducted in The Bahamas are stored electronically in a Dropbox folder labelled ‘AEX operational data file’,” Dr Pateman continued. “Although the documents and data are confidential property of the company, the Dropbox folder was set up and therefore ‘owned’ and controlled by a company associated with Daniel Porter.”

This entity was identified as Maritime Research & Recovery (Panama), and the e-mail associated with the Dropbox is Mr Porter’s personal account. Prior to his termination by Allen Exploration in July 2024, Mr Porter was said to have been “responsible for managing access to the folder and its contents” in his then-role as director of salvage.

“Since Porter’s employment was terminated, the company has made several requests to Porter to turn over all data associated with the company’s Bahamas projects that he has in his possession, custody or control,” Dr Pateman alleged. “Previously I had full authority to access, edit and delete documents in the Dropbox folder. However, my access is now restricted to only viewing within the folder.

“I do not have the ability to modify, download or otherwise alter the contents of the Dropbox folder. Porter is the only person that has access to the Dropbox folder to do anything other than view the documents. Some of the documents and files currently stored include logsheets of all artifact recoveries, spreadsheets or artifacts recovered and conserved, ‘points’ assigned to value each artifact, division requests and other division-related documents.”

David Concannon, attorney and spokesperson for Allen Exploration Group (AEG), told Tribune Business yesterday that the Bahamian government has been made “well aware” of all aspects of its dispute with Mr Porter including that the latter has control over documents detailing their commercial dealings and artifact/treasure divisions.

He added that Mr Porter’s own salvage boats, still emblazoned with Bahamas Maritime Museum and Allen Exploration markings, were understood to have left Bahamian waters amid the two sides’ escalating legal battle in the south Florida federal court.

“The Bahamian government is well aware of the litigation and what is happening. We continue to work well with the Government of The Bahamas,” Mr Concannon told this newspaper in messaged replied to its inquiries. 

“We understand that Porter finally moved his vessels from The Bahamas. We are grateful that this happened. Porter still had Allen Exploration and Bahamas Maritime Museum markings on the boats and we do not want anybody to be confused by this. Allen Exploration does not have, nor does it want, any relationship with Porter.”

Further legal filings with the south Florida court provide more details on the data that Mr Porter has in his possession. Allen Exploration alleged it includes “proprietary information concerning the search for and recovery of artifacts from the Maravillas; inventories of artifacts recovered from the Maravillas; non-public information identifying the division of artifacts with the Government of The Bahamas, the parties and various third-parties; the potential recovery of other shipwreck sites in The Bahamas; financial information concerning the salvage operations, employment matters and other trade secrets”.

As a result, Mr Concannon said Allen Exploration is seeking to obtain what he described as “two protective orders” from the south Florida federal court to prevent the potential public disclosure of this information. He accused Mr Porter of requesting that sanctions be imposed on Allen Exploration for failing to produce in evidence the very documents he has locked the latter out of and which are already in his possession.

“Porter and MRR have demanded the production of all communications, in any form, between every employee of Allen Exploration any topic over a five-year period. We believe this is simply meant to burden and harass Mr Allen and Allen Exploration, and increase the cost of the litigation,” Mr Concannon added.

“After all, Porter was the recipient of all these communications and he already has them. Why should Mr Allen and Allen Exploration have to go to the time and expense of providing something Porter already has?Porter has retained sole access to all of Allen Exploration’s confidential and proprietary data on the search for the Maravillas since 2019, supposedly ‘on the advice of counsel’. 

“The files were stored in a cloud file controlled by Porter in his capacity as Allen Exploration’s director of on-site operations, and with a database manager in Florida. We have demanded the return of the data several times and now we have sued Porter to obtain the return of the data and database,” Mr Concannon continued. 

“Ironically, Porter recently demanded that Allen Exploration produce this data to him in the litigation knowing that Allen Exploration cannot access it, and now he has moved for sanctions against the company for not doing so, complaining to the court that Allen Exploration has not produced any documents to him.

“Many of the documents that we do have, and are willing to produce, are confidential and proprietary. These are protected from public disclosure by the 2019 confidentiality agreement entered into by the parties. We sought an agreement from Porter’s counsel to maintain this confidentiality in the litigation but they would not do so, so we had to move for another protective order.”

Christopher Lanza, a Florida attorney also representing Allen Exploration, wrote to Mr Porter’s legal representatives on January 22, 2025, said the latter’s requests for information on “artifacts recovered by the parties in The Bahamas, and points assigned or values to each artifact”, was “the exact information that your clients were responsible for compiling and they have illegally retained in their possession on your advice”.

And, to drive the point home, Allen Exploration reiterated: “Plaintiffs are demanding the production of defendants’ personal and business income tax records, which have no bearing on the claims and defenses asserted, and numerous proprietary documents identifying the artifacts recovered and divisions with the Government of The Bahamas, despite plaintiffs already having possession of these documents and blocking defendants’ access to the very same records....

“This information is confidential and its disclosure will lead to financial and/or commercial injury... Plaintiffs are once again demanding documents or information already in their possession and/or which is not relevant to the claims and defenses asserted in this lawsuit, including identifications of artifacts, divisions with The Bahamas, wrecks around Mayaguana Island (500 miles southeast of the Maravillas)....

“This is a blatant overuse of discovery. The court should use its authority to guard against redundant, irrelevant and/or disproportionate discovery by entering a protective order limiting or overruling these discovery requests.”

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.

“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.”