COLUMBUS, Ohio — A former deep-sea treasure hunter, who spent nearly a decade incarcerated for not revealing the location of missing gold coins, received a significant legal ruling from a federal judge in Ohio. While his sentence for civil contempt has been terminated, he remains imprisoned due to a separate criminal contempt charge.
U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley stated in a Friday decision that he is “no longer convinced that further incarceration is likely to coerce compliance” from Tommy Thompson. However, he also mandated that Thompson begin a two-year sentence tied to the criminal contempt charge, which had been postponed until now.
Thompson has faced civil contempt since December 15, 2015, accumulating a daily fine of $1,000, leading to a total civil contempt fine that amounts to $3,335,000.
His troubles began with the discovery of the S.S. Central America, often referred to as the Ship of Gold, in 1988. This vessel sank during a hurricane off the coast of South Carolina in 1857 while carrying thousands of pounds of gold, a disaster that instigated an economic panic.
In spite of a federal court order and an investor lawsuit, Thompson has refused to assist authorities in locating 500 missing coins minted from the gold, claiming these coins—valued at approximately $2.5 million—were entrusted to a Belizean trust.
After failing to attend a crucial hearing in Ohio in 2012 regarding the coins, Thompson was tracked down and arrested by U.S. marshals in Florida in 2015. He subsequently pleaded guilty to charges related to missing the hearing, resulting in the two-year prison sentence.
It is notable that federal law usually limits the duration of contempt jail sentences to 18 months. However, a federal appeals court in 2019 dismissed Thompson’s claims that this law should apply to his situation, asserting that his noncompliance breached the terms of a plea agreement.
