Treasure hunters searching for $55 million of Civil War-era gold are suing the Justice Department for excavation documents

• Treasure hunters were searching for an 1863 shipment of Union gold worth $55 million.
• They called in the FBI for excavation assistance; the FBI claimed not to find anything.

Treasure hunters, who claim they discovered Civil War-era gold, are suing the Justice Department, claiming the FBI is withholding records on the excavation, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Finders Keepers, a lost treasure locate-and-recovery service, "seeks to confirm the FBI's recovery of Civil War-era gold buried in the mountains of Pennsylvania, based in significant part on scientific evidence of the gold's existence that Plaintiff provided the FBI," the lawsuit reads.

In 2018, the owners of Finders Keepers — Dennis and Kem Parada — found a substantial mass of metal after searching for an 1863 shipment of Union gold for years. The Union gold would be worth $55 million today, according to The Guardian.

Finders Keepers notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the mass, and the agency hired a separate contractor to dig up the mass with better instruments.

The attorney for Finders Keepers claims that there is a high possibility that the metal mass was indeed the missing treasure.

The FBI has denied finding anything, according to a 2018 statement. Again in 2021, the FBI said it "unequivocally rejects any claims or speculation to the contrary," in a statement to The Associated Press.

Still, the lawsuit filed by Finders Keepers alleges that the FBI is withholding information requested and violating the Freedom of Information Act. In 2019, Finders Keepers successfully sued to get emails from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania related to the dig.

"The FBI learned of the gold's existence only after the owners of Finders Keepers directed the government to the location of the buried treasure — and the technology strongly [suggested] that, buried at that site, was multiple tons of gold," attorney for Finders Keepers, Anne Weismann, told Insider via email.

"Following the dig, which the owners of Finders Keepers were barred from observing, the FBI insisted it had found nothing — contrary to all the evidence. At the same time, the FBI has refused to provide Finders Keepers with any documents in response to its Freedom of Information Act request," Weismann added.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. The Philadelphia FBI declined to comment on the suit filed by the treasure hunters.