It is often said that behind every great fortune lies a great crime. The twisted tale of Yamashita’s gold, allegedly buried in the Philippine islands, is a story of a great fortune and many crimes that became inseparably intertwined.

The tale begins with Japan’s plundering of its neighbors before and during World War II. As the Germans did in Europe, the Japanese squeezed vast fortunes from their Asian domain…

Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, standing before a firing squad, handed each of his executioners a gold coin and entreated them to shoot true… and preferably not in the head. The marksmen obliged, and on July 19, 1867, bullets ended Maximilian’s three-year career as Napoleon’s New World puppet.

Between the years of 1217 and 1227 Genghis Khan’s bloody conquests created the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever known, and for a time, the great Khan was the richest, most powerful man on earth. His treasury contained the pillaged wealth of China, India and Russia combined; jeweled Chinese weapons, gold coins from Samark and priceless religious artifacts from Russian Orthodox churches…