Treasure hunter is RELEASED from prison after refusing to share location of 500 gold coins
A former deep-sea treasure hunter who made one of the largest shipwreck discoveries in American history and spent the last decade in prison after refusing to reveal the whereabouts of some of his missing gold coins is now free.
Tommy Thompson, who found the ship known as the Golden Ship off the coast of South Carolina in 1988, was released last Wednesday, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records.
Thompson, an Ohio-born research scientist, was hailed as a hero after finding the SS Central America and its thousands of pounds of sunken treasure that sat at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for more than 150 years.
But in the years that followed, he battled investors who accused him of defrauding millions of dollars and spent years on the run before being sent to prison for refusing court orders while claiming not to know what happened to the 500 coins minted from the bottom of the ship.
Central America was laden with a large cargo from the California Gold Rush when it sank in a hurricane in 1857.
A total of 425 people drowned and thousands of kilos of gold went missing, contributing to the economic panic.
Tommy Thompson was sued (in 1991) by investors who said they paid him $12.7 million to find the treasure but saw no return. Thompson went into hiding in 2012
This undated drawing offered by the Library of Congress shows the US Mail ship SS Central America, which sank after entering a hurricane in September 1857.
Investors backing Thompson’s venture sued him in 2005, saying they had yet to receive any money from the $50 million sale of the ship’s loot, more than 500 gold bars and thousands of coins.
Thompson, who lived in Florida, became a recluse and later became a fugitive when an Ohio federal judge issued an arrest warrant for him in 2012 after he failed to appear in court.
Authorities tracked Thompson to a hotel in Florida three years later. The judge later held him in contempt and sent Thompson to prison in late 2015 for refusing to answer questions about the location of the missing coins.
Thompson, now 73, claimed the coins, then valued at $2.5 million, were transferred to a foundation in Belize, and said the $50 million from the sale of the first batch of gold went mostly to legal fees and bank loans.
He remained locked up even though federal law generally limits prison sentences for contempt of court to 18 months.
A federal appeals court in 2019 rejected Thompson’s claim that the law applied to him, saying his denial violated the terms of his plea agreement.
Thompson, who found the ship known as the Golden Ship off the coast of South Carolina in 1988, was released last Wednesday, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records.
A 1989 photo shows gold bars and coins in situ as they were recovered by Thompson
Golden remains of a wooden cargo box recovered from the SS Central America. The gold was discovered after treasure hunter Tommy Thompson found the ship in 1988.
Shown here are various gold nuggets recovered from Central America. The gold rush-era ship sank in a hurricane off the coast of South Carolina in 1857 with thousands of pounds of gold.
The following year, Thompson appeared by video at another hearing, where U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley asked again if he was prepared to reveal the whereabouts of the gold.
Thompson replied, “Your Honor, I don’t know if we’ve been down this road before, but I don’t know where the gold is.” ‘I feel like I don’t have the keys to my freedom.’
A little more than a year ago, Marbley agreed to vacate Thompson’s sentence on the civil contempt charge, saying he was no longer convinced that keeping him in prison would provide a solution.
The judge then ordered Thompson to immediately begin serving his two-year prison sentence for missing a 2012 hearing.
On Monday, California coin dealer Dwight Manley, who bought and sold nearly the entire fortune, said Thompson paid a heavy price for what he said was a business dispute.
One of thousands of 1857 $20 gold pieces recovered from the SS Central America shipwreck (left), as well as a gold bar and $50 gold piece recovered from the wreck (right)
‘Going to prison for 10 years over a labor dispute is un-American,’ Manley said. ‘People kill people and they get out in half the time.’
Ryan Scott, a University of Florida law professor who researched contempt law and worked to secure Thompson’s release, said penalties in civil contempt cases are somewhat vague, but shouldn’t last forever.
‘To continue for another 10 years is very unusual,’ Scott said.
He said Thompson should have been released years ago – since at least 2018, after the court dismissed the underlying case – calling it ‘injustice that this has taken this long’.
