Couple May Have Buried $2.7M in Coins, Says FBI

Couple May Have Buried $2.7M in Coins, Says FBI

ROMANIANS BUILT HUGE SHELTER IN WASHINGTON STATE

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff
Posted May 8, 2014 2:44 AM CDT | Updated May 8, 2014 4:03 AM CDT

(NEWSER) – A Romanian couple are being sent back to their homeland to be questioned over alleged tax evasion—and authorities suspect they are leaving $2.7 million in "buried treasure" behind in Washington state.

The FBI arrested Radu and Diana Nemes in March and discovered they owned six properties in the state, including one where a "fully stocked doomsday bunker" had been built, NBC News reports.

Neighbors said they had helped the couple bury and dig up gold coins on the property, and FBI forensic accountants who compared the recovered coins against the Nemes' known purchases say $2.6 million in gold coins and $126,000 in silver are still unaccounted for.

Federal agents say they found the underground bunker on a 57-acre property where the couple, who have two children and a third on the way, were building a $3 million log cabin.

The bunker, whose steel doors could be sealed from the inside, "could comfortably have housed the entire family for months if not years, given the supply of food found in storage in that structure," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

The Nemes are in federal custody and will soon be deported to Romania, where they are accused of making millions off a tax-evasion scheme involving the sale of what they told the Romanian government was a lower-grade fuel but was actually diesel.

They moved to the US in 2012, just in advance of charges being filed back home. FBI agents, meanwhile, have used ground-penetrating radar to search for the buried treasure without success.

http://www.newser.com/story/186550/did-extradited-couple-leave-buried-treasure-behind.html