foolish? i was so angry that i couldn t even speak. to think what this guy had done to me. reporter: eager to find answers, karl tracked down kirk shaffer, a california diver who worked for standefer and had also given him some money. shaffer says he never got paid back. and when he heard karl s story, the diver was ready to talk about dennis standefer. i never saw him find anything. even gold. look, most of the time it was running around, looking for things that he could tantalize investors with. reporter: shaffer told karl that standefer was a con man who had fooled newspapers and tv. the key, kirk says, was that the cons always had a kernel of truth. the japanese did hide gold on some hospital ships. and there were dragon jars. but, shaffer claims, standefer never had any intention of going after them. he seemed to be much more interested in just keeping the game going.
the japanese buried part of it in caves and they loaded on to hospital ships and one that he found off the coast, on the bottom of the ocean. a keen fortune hidden below the surface. it was in a protected harbor in the northern philippines. he wouldn t tell me the location. it was in shallow water and his research indicated that it could have probably a couple hundred tons of gold. to prove that carl had the goods, his appearances on philippine tv. it would be many, many years and millions of dollars. even a story on cnn. up to 177 major sites of japanese treasure. then dennis said the magic words. would carl like to come? would he ever. carl teaching overcrowded
part, a small fee compared to the untold riches aboard a sunken japanese hospital ship. what was it like to look down and see that wreck there, knowing what might be inside it? oh, it was i was like a kid in a candy store. reporter: as karl and other expedition investors waited, divers scoured the hospital ship wreck, they brought up artifacts, cups and dishes. but no gold. karl says he didn t care. he knew it was risky. we didn t find anything especially valuable. but all that stuff is considered artifacts. and very intriguing. i mean, this was my first shipwreck. reporter: all that mattered was he was on a real treasure hunt with a friend who lived the life karl wanted. money would have been nice but i got into it for the sense of adventure. i m like, this is what i always wanted to do. and this guy is going to make it happen here. reporter: the next summer, 1993, karl was back in the philippines with dennis. and this time they dug up
stand standefer. stories of gold asleep in the deep, stories from central mark to the south pacific, it was a magic connection carl had been looking for since boyhood. he was fascinating. probably the most fascinating person i ever met. two years later in 1992 the treasure hunter approached carl with a plan. standefer wanted to dive in the sunken world war ii japanese hospital ship like this one in the newsreel. the hospital ship complete with crosses and all of the international insig ni abu officers of the seventh fleet smelled a rat. not only was there ammunition on this trip, but treasure, too. treasure they supposedly plundered in from southeast asia during the war. it was upwards of billions and billions of dollars. act facts? ar facts. gold bars, thousands of gold bars, tons of gold.