Dennis Parada, co-owner of Finders Keepers, claims the FBI is covering up the discovery of Civil War-era gold the agency dug up in Pennsylvania. “We feel we were double-crossed and lied to,” said Parada after he and his son pinpointed the location of the gold before the FBI swooped in. In 2018, the FBI searched a remote area of Pennsylvania where an 1863 shipment of Union gold disappeared, but they said nothing was found. Parada sued the Justice Department last year to force the FBI to release records on the search of the excavation site, and a judge ruled in favor of the agency.

Prada suspects the FBI found the buried gold and are withholding information from the public.

According to Fox:

“We have compelling evidence a night dig took place, and that the FBI went to some large effort to cover up that night dig,” said Getler, co-author of “Rebel Gold,” a book exploring the possibility of buried Civil War-era caches of gold and silver.

Parada and his son, Kem Parada, had searched for the gold for years, eventually finding a remote woodland area that contained a large quantity of metal. The duo’s work eventually led the FBI to obtain a warrant to search the area in March 2018, which was documented by a videographer.

Parada suspects that between the first and second days of the court-authorized excavation, the agency found the historic gold during a clandestine, overnight dig. Residents previously reported hearing a backhoe and jackhammer overnight – when the dig was supposed to have been paused – and seeing a convoy of FBI vehicles, including large armored trucks.

The FBI has denied it conducted an overnight dig.

“I will stick at this until the end, until I know everything that happened to that gold,” Parada said. “How much, where it went to, who has it now. I gotta know.”