US EditionTreasure Hunter Who Refused to Disclose Location of Shipwreck's 500 Gold Coins Is Released From Prison After a Decade
Tommy Thompson spent about 10 years in prison for refusing to reveal the location of roughly 500 missing gold coins from the S.S. Central America treasure, worth $2.5 million.
- Last Wednesday, Tommy Thompson was released from federal custody after spending about a decade in prison, federal Bureau of Prisons records show.
- The treasure find and ensuing investor disputes set the stage for years of litigation after Tommy Thompson located the S.S. Central America in 1988, recovering thousands of pounds of sunken gold and battling investors who accused him of cheating them out of millions.
- After missing a 2012 hearing, authorities tracked Thompson to a Florida hotel and arrested him; a judge held him in contempt and sent him to prison at the end of 2015, with a 2019 appeals court rejecting his legal argument.
- U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley agreed to end the civil‑contempt detention and ordered Thompson to start a two‑year sentence, while investors who sued in 2005 still await proceeds from the $50 million sale.
- Thompson says about 500 missing coins were placed in a trust in Belize with a $2.5 million valuation, and his extended detention beyond the federal contempt‑of‑court limit raises legal questions.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Treasure hunter who refused to disclose location of shipwreck's 500 gold coins is released from prison after a decade
Tommy Thompson found the S.S. Central America and its thousands of pounds of sunken treasure that sat at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for more than 150 years.
500 gold coins remain unaccounted for after ‘Ship of Gold’ treasure hunter released from prison
A former deep-sea treasure hunter who made one of the great shipwreck discoveries in American history and spent more than a decade in jail after refusing to disclose the whereabouts of some of its missing gold coins is now out of prison, federal records show.
Man hailed as a hero for finding the Ship of Gold and then jailed for losing the coins now released after a decade in prison
A former deep-sea treasure hunter who made one of the great shipwreck discoveries in American history and spent more than a decade in jail after refusing to disclose the whereabouts of some of its missing gold coins is now out of prison, federal records show. Tommy Thompson, who in 1988 located what was known as the Ship of Gold off the coast of South Carolina, was released last Wednesday, according to federal Bureau of Prisons records reviewed …
Associated Press News
‘Ship of Gold’ treasure hunter released from prison, but 500 gold coins remain unaccounted for
A former deep-sea treasure hunter who spent more than a decade in prison after refusing to disclose the whereabouts of missing gold coins is now free.
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