A US deep-sea treasure hunter has finally walked free after spending nearly a decade in prison for refusing to reveal the location of valuable shipwreck gold coins.
Tommy Thompson, now 73, discovered a massive underwater treasure in 1988 while searching for the wreck of the SS Central America. The historic ship sank in 1857 while transporting large amounts of freshly minted gold from San Francisco to the eastern United States.
Discovery of the “Ship of Gold”
Thompson and his team located the wreck about 7,000 feet beneath the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina. The ship had carried nearly 30,000 pounds of gold, including bars and coins. When it sank during a hurricane, 425 passengers and crew members lost their lives.
Historians believe the disaster also played a role in triggering the Panic of 1857, one of the country’s earliest major financial crises.
When Thompson’s expedition recovered the treasure in 1988, it became one of the most famous deep-sea discoveries in history.
Investors Claim They Were Cheated
To fund the project, 161 investors had contributed about $12.7 million to Thompson’s venture. In return, they expected a share of the profits from the recovered gold.
Over time, the team recovered thousands of gold bars and coins from the ocean floor. A large portion of the treasure was later sold to a marketing company in 2000 for roughly $50 million.
However, the investors said they never received their promised returns. In 2005, they filed a lawsuit accusing Thompson of hiding profits and withholding information about the recovered treasure.
Authorities later estimated that the gold recovered from the wreck could be worth as much as $400 million.
Years on the Run
As legal pressure increased, Thompson disappeared in 2012 and avoided court appearances for several years.
In 2015, authorities finally located and arrested him in Boca Raton, Florida. He had been living quietly in a hotel with an associate for about two years. The pair used cash payments, taxis, and public transportation to avoid attracting attention.
Refusing to Reveal the Missing Coins
After his arrest, the court demanded that Thompson disclose the location of about 500 missing gold coins believed to be part of the recovered treasure.
When he refused to answer questions, a judge found him in civil contempt of court and sent him to prison.
Civil contempt sentences can continue indefinitely until a person cooperates with the court order. In Thompson’s case, that meant revealing where the coins were stored.
Despite years behind bars, Thompson never revealed the information.
Release After a Decade
After nearly ten years in custody, a judge decided to end the civil contempt sentence. The court concluded that continued imprisonment would not force Thompson to provide the missing details.
As a result, the treasure hunter has now been released — while the mystery of the 500 missing gold coins remains unsolved.
