AN ocean surveyor working for the treasure hunting company which hauled silver and gold said to be worth more than £250m from a shipwreck in the Atlantic has been prosecuted for insider dealing.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that Ernesto Tapanes made a profit of more than £50,000 by buying and selling the company’s shares.

The SEC says Tapanes, 39, was working as an oceanographic surveying consultant for Odyssey last March when he identified the wreck, codenamed Black Swan by the company, off the coast of Gibraltar.

At the time of Tapanes’ discovery, the company kept the Black Swan a closely guarded secret for weeks and required its workers to sign a confidentiality agreement and not to trade in company stock.

The SEC said Tapanes, a Canadian, signed the agreement on April 4, 2007, and that same day started buying Odyssey Marine stock through his account.

In total, Tapanes had bought 42,000 shares by May 15, the agency said.

Three days later, Odyssey Marine issued a press release about its discovery and excavation of 17 tons of coins and other artefacts from the Black Swan. The haul was subsequently said to be worth around £250m.

The stock soared that day, closing up almost 81%, and continued to rise for several more days.

The SEC said Tapanes started selling his entire Odyssey Marine holdings after the announcement, reaping more than £54,000 in profits.

“His trading essentially was pretty flagrant,” said Teresa Verges, assistant enforcement director in the SEC’s Miami office.

Tapanes has agreed to settle by paying the SEC a total of £110,000, which includes a penalty of £54,000, without having to admit, or deny, the charge.

The identity and ownership of the Black Swan have become the subject of a court battle in the US between Odyssey and the government of Spain, which suspects that the wreck is actually that of the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish frigate which sank in 1804.

Greg Stemm, the chief executive of Florida-based Odyssey Marine, said he didn’t know whether Tapanes would continue to work for the company. According to the SEC Tapanes has worked exclusively for Odyssey since 2002.

In a statement, the Odyssey said, “Mr Tapanes is one of many independent consultants to Odyssey Marine Exploration and is not a direct employee. The company is not aware of any SEC investigations into any of the company's employees, officers or directors, and has no reason to expect any in the future.”

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