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Treasure hunter Michael Hatcher has finally broken his silence on the controversy surrounding his activities, even as the police unit investigating allegations of looting says there is no indication he did anything illegal.

Hatcher, 70, told The Times of London that allegations he had looted items from shipwrecks in Indonesian waters were politically motivated.

“There’s no foundation to it,” he said in Jakarta. “The people behind this are companies opposed to my companies. They have a crack at me all the time.

“My job takes me to places where you take risks, but one thing I don’t do is screw with the law here.

“I don’t want to go to an Indonesian jail.”

The National Police’s Special Crimes Directorate lent credence to his claims when it said there was no indication Hatcher had done anything illegal.

“We’re still looking into it, but there’s no proof that he committed any crime,” directorate deputy chief Comr. Mahfud Arifin told the Jakarta Globe on Monday.

He also contradicted Friday’s announcement by National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi that police had imposed a travel ban on Hatcher.

“As far as I know, we haven’t requested the immigration office to prohibit him from leaving the country,” Mahfud said.

Hatcher is alleged to have attempted to smuggle thousands of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) porcelain artifacts out of the country in two ships that were intercepted off West Java in September. Some 2,360 artifacts were seized from the ships.

Aji Sularso, director general of supervision at the Ministry of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, has called on police to name Hatcher a suspect.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea recognizes the “preferential rights” and not claims of the country of origin, cultural origin or historical/archaeological origin of shipwrecked cargo, leaving a legal quandary over who can claim it.

Hatcher’s salvage missions in Indonesia began in 1980 with the discovery of the Geldermalsen in East Bintan, Riau Islands, from which he recovered Chinese porcelain that was later auctioned off for $20 million.

In 1999, Hatcher raised 365,000 porcelain items from the wreck of the Chinese junk Tek Sing, which ran aground off southern Sumatra in 1822, constituting the biggest find of its kind ever.

Since 2008, Hatcher has been seen in Blanakan, West Java, with operator PT Comexindo Usaha Mandiri, which was only permitted to survey the area from 2009.

In 2006, police arrested two divers, Frenchman Jean-Paul Blancan and German Fred Dobberpuhl, for illegally salvaging items from a 10th-century wreck in the Java Sea.

The incident caused an uproar in France, where the government demanded that Indonesia immediately release Blancan and summoned the Indonesian ambassador to protest his detention.

Blancan and Dobberpuhl were later released and the case remains in limbo.

Illegal salvaging is punishable by up to five years in prison and Rp 50 million ($5,500) in fines.