Why a treasure hunter sits driving bars as bounty will get auctioned

A treasure trove of artifacts recovered from a 165-12 months-aged shipwreck at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean is getting auctioned off even though the gentleman accountable for the discovery sits guiding bars for a sixth year.

Tommy Thompson, a deep-sea explorer who discovered the SS Central America shipwreck in 1988, could get out of the federal prison in Michigan if he would expose the whereabouts of 500 gold cash.

Thompson, who turned 70 sitting in his mobile very last 12 months, is becoming held in contempt of court and fined $1,000 a day for each working day he doesn’t response the government’s concerns about the gold. He’s racked up additional than $2 million in penalties, and you can find no signal he is near to getting introduced.

“I truly feel like I never have the keys to my liberty,” Thompson claimed at a listening to in 2020, insisting he told the governing administration every little thing he is aware of.

The saga of the ‘Ship of Gold’

Thompson is significantly taken off from his life as one particular of the most productive treasure hunters in the U.S., a feat accomplished when he and his staff learned the SS Central The us, also known as the Ship of Gold. The Central America was laden with California gold hurry booty when it sank in 1857 off the Carolina coast 425 men and women drowned, and the wreckage remains 7,000 feet down below sea amount.

Quickly immediately after Thompson introduced his momentous discovery of the Ship of Gold, a team of insurance businesses laid assert to its treasures without evidence they experienced insured them. A court battle ensued, and Thompson and his group came out on top rated.

In 2000, Thompson’s business bought 532 gold bars and hundreds of cash to the California Gold Advertising and marketing Team for about $50 million. Thompson stated the bulk of that revenue went toward legal costs and lender financial loans.

In the meantime the group of investors who compensated millions to fund Thompson’s aspiration of acquiring the ship under no circumstances saw any returns. In 2005, they sued Thompson, who went into seclusion in Florida and became a fugitive soon after an Ohio choose issued a warrant for his arrest in 2012.

Story proceeds

Thompson eluded authorities for much more than two years, hiding in a lodge below a faux identify and having to pay for everything in income.

He was captured in 2015, and far more than $425,000 in money was seized from the lodge.

That 12 months, Thompson reached a plea settlement with prosecutors and was sentenced to two a long time in jail for failing to appear in courtroom.

Thompson has not served a single working day of that sentence, in its place racking up 12 months soon after 12 months in contempt of court for violating his plea arrangement, which stipulated that he response queries about the gold.

The choose in the case appears geared up to wait Thompson out indefinitely.

“He will contemplate cooperation in confinement,” U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley claimed at a hearing in February 2017. “The fortunate aspect of it is I have life tenure, as well. So we’ll often have a exclusive place to accommodate him and many others like him who really don’t believe that rules use to them and who act in complete defiance of the regulation.

The look for for 500 gold coins

Dwight Manley, a former higher-profile sports activities agent who bought the gold and the rights to Thompson’s daily life story, told Usa Today in June that the treasure hunter has turned into a victim.

“He did a little something very erroneous … he should really be punished,” Manley explained. “But he’s compensated considerably also major a value for a fiscal difficulty. You will find individuals that get rid of individuals that get out quicker than that.”

“It truly is a cliché, but he’s made his mattress, and now he has to rest in it,” reported Bob Evans, who was portion of Thompson’s staff that found out the SS Central The united states.

“He is running out the clock on himself,” Evans stated. “I will not experience specifically sorry for him simply because so substantially of it was self-inflicted.”

At a variety of points in his court docket case, Thompson has claimed he place the 500 gold cash in a blind belief in Belize. At some others, he claimed he did not recall the place the gold is. He insisted he is not able to monitor it down and filed requests to be released from prison, while Marbley explained he will not rule on them until finally Thompson obtains an attorney.

Thompson said he’s trying to acquire an attorney but is bogged down by medical issues and only has the use of a prison cellphone for up to 15 minutes a working day.

“It can be tough to reveal the quantity of roadblocks,” Thompson said this calendar year. “I never know any deep-water oceanographers that are lazy … I’m performing all the time below. It’s hard to communicate from in this article.”

Marbley hasn’t acquired any of Thompson’s explanations around the a long time.

“He appears like the savvy treasure hunter that he in truth is, who is an engineer. His mind is sharp, his wit is acerbic, and he appears to be possessed of a steely will that will call for him to just wait out all of his buyers and every person,” he mentioned in 2017.

Last thirty day period, Marbley turned down a ask for from Thompson for two extra months to uncover an attorney, rather telling him he should get hold of just one by Nov. 30.

It is really unclear no matter if Thompson has succeeded in carrying out so. He is established for a courtroom hearing on Dec. 9 to go over his civil contempt.

Treasures of SS Central America on tour

As Thompson continues to be in lawful limbo, the life of the ship of his dreams goes on.

This weekend, hundreds of artifacts recovered from the ship from 1988 to 2014 are up for auction at the Reno Conference Middle in Nevada and online at Holabird Western Americana Collections.

Months prior to the auction, USA Nowadays was given an distinctive initially look at the artifacts, which include things like private letters, clothing, a saloon indicator, a pistol in its holster, a photograph nicknamed “The Mona Lisa of the Deep” and a first edition of “The Rely of Monte Cristo.”

“It really is like a time capsule,” Manley explained. “It can be the human side of the tale.”

As a United states of america Nowadays Network photographer captured photographs and online video of the artifacts, an armed stability guard in a bulletproof vest viewed intently.

Each of the items ranges in value from a few hundred thousand pounds to much more than $1 million.

Evans, who has been on every voyage to the Central America and remains in cost of preserving its treasures, mentioned they’re worthy of considerably a lot more than that.

“What stories do these objects have to notify? That is the real thrill,” he reported.

Far more exclusive reporting from United states Now

This article originally appeared on United states Nowadays: Treasure hunter who uncovered SS Central America and its gold is jailed