It has been noted that Odyssey Marine Exploration (NASDAQ:OMEX) filed Amended Complaints on August 6, 2007 in three Admiralty arrest cases in response to Spain’s Motions for More Definite Statements.
http://shipwreck.net/pr144.html
One of the more interesting items in these filings was the motion requests that before providing the information contained in the reports to Spain, the Court require Spain’s counsel and the Spanish authority taking control over the information to sign a Confidentiality Agreement.
Among the reasons for this request is a history of repeated leaks of confidential information from some Spanish government agencies and the fact that Spain’s counsel, James Goold, is the Chairman of an organization, the RPM Nautical Foundation, which is a potential competitor to Odyssey in the provision of underwater archaeological services to Government agencies.
A link to RPM Nautical Foundation is here: http://www.rpmnautical.org/index.html
Conflict of Interest? IMHO, definitely. But we'll have to wait to see how this plays out in court.