A former deep-sea treasure hunter who has served nearly a decade in jail for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of missing gold coins has had that term ended by a federal judge in Ohio, but he will remain behind bars for now.
U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley agreed Friday to end Tommy Thompson’s sentence on the civil contempt charge, saying he “no longer is convinced that further incarceration is likely to coerce compliance.” However, he also ordered that the research scientist immediately start serving a two-year sentence he received for a related criminal contempt charge, a term that was delayed when the civil contempt term was imposed.
Thompson has been held in contempt of court since Dec. 15, 2015, and also incurred a daily fine of $1,000. In his ruling, Marbley assessed Thompson’s total civil contempt fine at $3,335,000.
Thompson’s case dates to his discovery of the S.S. Central America, known as the Ship of Gold, in 1988. The ship sank in September 1857, along with 425 passengers and crewmembers and 30,000 pounds of federal gold from the new San Francisco Mint to create a reserve for banks in the eastern U.S. The ship was located by Thompson and his team more than 7,000 feet below the surface.
AP Photo/The Columbus Dispatch, Lon Horwedel
Despite an investor lawsuit and a federal court order, Thompson still won’t cooperate with authorities trying to find 500 coins minted from some of the gold, according to court records. He has previously said, without providing details, that the coins – valued at about $2.5 million – were turned over to a trust in Belize.
After a federal judge ordered Thompson in 2012 to appear in court to disclose the coins’ whereabouts, Thompson fled to Florida where he lived with his longtime female companion at a hotel where he was living near Boca Raton. U.S. marshals tracked him down and arrested him in early 2015.
He pleaded guilty in April 2015 to skipping that hearing and was given the two-year prison sentence.
Federal law generally limits jail time for contempt of court to 18 months. But a federal appeals court in 2019 rejected Thompson’s argument that that law applies to him, saying his refusal violated conditions of a plea agreement.
In 2022, one of the largest S.S. Central America ingots ever offered at auction, an 866.19-ounce find known as a Justh & Hunter ingot, sold for $2.16 million through Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.
“Given that Justh & Hunter bars recovered from the S.S. Central America numbered 86 ingots of varying sizes, their experience and integrity ranked them among the most trusted and well-run assay establishments of the momentous Gold Rush era,” Heritage Auctions said.
Treasure from the S.S. Central America has fetched millions of dollars over the years. In 2019, multiple relics from the shipwreck hauled in more than $11 million at auction. In 2001, an 80-pound ingot was bought by a private collector for a record $8 million.
California Gold Marketing Group via AP
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