Colombia Launches Legal Defense Against U.S. Company That Claimed A Sunken Treasure Worth Billions

The Colombian government has laid out its legal defense in what could become the most expensive lawsuit in the country's history. Concretely, U.S. treasure hunting firm Sea Search Armada (SSA) is suing the South American for a share of what may be the largest treasure trove in maritime history, with valuations ranging from $4 billion to $20 billion.

But the Colombian government is adamant that the company, which claims to have found the San José galleon shipwreck in the 1980s, has no claim to the riches within.

Why exactly is the government being sued?

The dispute over the San José galleon and its treasure has been ongoing for decades.

The Spanish ship was sunk in 1708 by the British Navy while travelling from what is now Panama to the port of Cartagena, in Colombia. It was carrying some 600 crew members as well as a trove of gold coins, emeralds, and porcelain.

More than 270 years later, in 1982, a U.S. treasure hunting company called Glocca Morra (now SSA) claimed to discover the San José galleon.

It provided the coordinates to the Colombian government, hoping the state would raise the wreck and split the proceeds. However, the two parties failed to reach an agreement on how to divide up the treasure and the ship remained on the seafloor.

The battle was reignited in 2015 when the Colombian state announced it had located the shipwreck in a different area to the coordinates provided by SSA.

As the government prepares plans to raise the ship, the American treasure hunting firm has staked a claim to 50% of the value of the treasure within. It estimates this to be a whopping $10 billion, potentially making it the most expensive lawsuit in Colombian history.

SSA's suit is being brought by Gibson Dunn, a U.S. law firm that has previously represented industry multinationals including Chevron, CNN and Apple.

The dispute is now being hashed out before the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague.

What is Colombia's argument?

On January 15 the Colombian National Agency for the Legal Defense of the State (Andje), which is leading the government's defense, outlined its strategy.

Its argument rests on a claim that Glocca Morra never found the shipwreck in the 1980s, and therefore have no rights to the treasure within.

Speaking to The Latin Times, Andje's Director of International Defense, Yebrail Haddad, emphasized that the firm provided incorrect coordinates after its original expedition.

"The site reported by the predecessors of Sea Search Armada in 1982 is completely different to the site at which the galleon was effectively discovered in 2015 by the Colombian state," said Haddad.

To prove this argument, the state got the help of a host of maritime experts. The most prominent of these is the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the largest independent oceanographic research institution in the U.S.

The government commissioned a $1.4 million study by Woods Hole to prove that the coordinates offered by Glocca Morra were incorrect.

The institution found that the location provided to the government in 1982 was 10 kilometers away from the ship's actual resting place.

The government is using that data point to oppose any sort of financial settlement with SSA.

Haddad was scathing in his appraisal of the U.S. firm and its claim.

"There will not be room for any type of deal with a 'treasure hunting' company, the perpetrator of a frivolous and abusive claim," said the lawyer.

As well as its technical argument about the location of the ship, the Colombian government says that the ship qualifies as "underwater cultural heritage" and cannot be given a monetary value.

Andje's Director General, César Palomino Cortés, declared in a statement that "the claimant has no rights whatsoever to the cultural heritage of Colombians."

The Latin Times contacted SSA's legal team for comment but did not receive a response.

What happens next?

The court is expected to hand down a verdict in November or December of 2025.

Haddad said he was confident that the international tribunal in the Netherlands would support the Colombian government's arguments.

"Sea Search Armada and its predecessors did not find the San José galleon and therefore have no right whatsoever over it. And we expect that the judges overseeing the case will reach the same conclusion," he told The Latin Times.

But even if the dispute is resolved between Colombia and SSA, further legal challenges may lie ahead for the Colombian state.

Other parties have staked a claim to the treasure, including the Spanish government and Indigenous groups.

Spain argues that the treasure remains state property as it belonged to the Spanish state when the galleon sank in 1708.

Meanwhile, multiple Indigenous groups from Bolivia and Peru claim that a part of the contents of the ship belongs to their communities. They argue that the Spanish kingdom looted precious metals from their lands using enslaved Indigenous workers.

With Colombia's President Gustavo Petro reportedly determined to raise the shipwreck before his term ends in August 2026, the government faces a race against time to stake its claim to the treasures of the San José Galeón.