U.S. couple risk trial in France over stolen 18th-century shipwreck gold
He had known the author and her husband since the 1980s, and they had joined him on holiday on his catamaran in Greece in 2011, in the Caribbean in 2014 and in French Polynesia in 2015, investigators found.
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The Courter couple were detained in the United Kingdom in 2022, then put under house arrest.
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French investigators concluded that they had been in possession of at least 23 gold bars in total. They found they had sold 18 ingots for more than US$192,000, including some via online sale platform eBay. But the Courters claimed the arrangement had always been for the money to go to Gladu.
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A prosecutor in the western French city of Brest has requested that the Courters, Gladu and Pesty be tried, according to a document obtained by AFP on Tuesday.
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An investigating magistrate still has to decide whether or not to order a trial, but prosecutors said a trial was likely in the autumn of 2026.
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The U.S. couple's lawyer, Gregory Levy, said they had had no idea what they were getting into.
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'The Courters accepted because they are profoundly nice people. They didn't see the harm as in the United States, regulations for gold are completely different from those in France,' he said, adding the couple had not profited from the sales.
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Courter has written several fiction and non-fiction books, some nautical-themed, according to her website. One is a thriller set on a cruise ship, while another is her real-life account of being trapped on an ocean liner off the Japanese coast during a 2020 Covid quarantine.
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Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Filyanov is the latest success story to emerge from the dairy located inside Smolyan prison, where about 15 selected inmates produce some of Bulgaria's highly sought-after cheese and yogurt. 'Work is interesting –- not too hard, not too easy,' said 30-year-old Filyanov, who was handed a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for drug dealing. He has since been released early after having his sentence reduced by prison labour. The 'Gerzovitsa' dairy is the brainchild of former prison director Hristo Solakov, who was looking for ways to produce everything in-house while helping inmates to prepare for life outside jail. From tending to herds of goats and cows, to making white cheese, prisoners are involved throughout the entire process. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Coveted by cheese lovers and often sold out at specialty stores outside prison, production has not been able to keep up with demand. Inmates prepare white cheese at the 'Gerzovitsa' dairy inside Smolyan prison. (Nikolay DOYCHINOV/AFP) Photo by Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP No artificial preservatives The prison is located about 20 minutes from the nearest town of the same name, in a narrow gorge surrounded by conifer-covered hills. Once the headquarters of several Communist-run uranium mines, which were shuttered after 1989, the building is now home to around 100 inmates, who serve time in the semi-open prison for drink-driving, theft but also murder. 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