{"id":69585,"date":"2026-03-10T18:54:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/treasure-hunter-who-refused-to-disclose-location-of-shipwrecks-500-gold-coins-is-released-from-prison-after-a-decade\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T18:54:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:54:55","slug":"treasure-hunter-who-refused-to-disclose-location-of-shipwrecks-500-gold-coins-is-released-from-prison-after-a-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/treasure-hunter-who-refused-to-disclose-location-of-shipwrecks-500-gold-coins-is-released-from-prison-after-a-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"Treasure hunter who refused to disclose location of shipwreck&#8217;s 500 gold coins is released from prison after a decade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>A former <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/treasure-hunter-jailed-gold-coins-legal-win-tommy-thompson\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">deep-sea treasure hunter<\/a><\/span> who made one of the greatest shipwreck discoveries in American history and spent the past decade in prison after refusing to disclose the whereabouts of some of its <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/treature-hunter-tommy-thompson-jail-5-years-missing-gold-coins\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">missing gold coins<\/a><\/span> is now free, federal records show.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/ex-treasure-hunter-tommy-thompson-ordered-to-answer-questions-about-missing-gold-coins\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Tommy Thompson<\/a><\/span>, who in 1988 located what was known as the &#8220;Ship of Gold&#8221; off the coast of South Carolina, was released last Wednesday, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records reviewed by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson, an Ohio-born research scientist, was hailed as a hero after finding the S.S. Central America and its thousands of pounds of <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/ocean-treasure-hunter-tommy-thompson-contempt-500-gold-coins\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">sunken treasure<\/a><\/span> that sat at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for more than 150 years.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/today-in-history\/august-24\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ship sank in September 1857<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n<p>But in the decades that followed, he battled with investors who accused him of cheating them out of millions and then spent years on the run as a fugitive before being <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/feds-reveal-how-fugitive-treasure-hunter-tommy-thompson-eluded-police-for-2-years\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">sent to prison<\/a><\/span> over rebuffing court orders while contending he didn&#8217;t know what happened to 500 coins minted from the ship&#8217;s gold.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2015\/01\/28\/2bcb43b3-46ca-4a20-9180-adaa2216be63\/thumbnail\/620x436\/17851a640397bea8ac49ed3219c43d03\/tommythompsonap16121887543.jpg#\" alt=\"tommythompsonap16121887543.jpg \" height=\"436\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2015\/01\/28\/2bcb43b3-46ca-4a20-9180-adaa2216be63\/thumbnail\/620x436\/17851a640397bea8ac49ed3219c43d03\/tommythompsonap16121887543.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2015\/01\/28\/2bcb43b3-46ca-4a20-9180-adaa2216be63\/thumbnail\/1240x872\/5664ed2effcdbc96ca6b09e8d872dca4\/tommythompsonap16121887543.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">In this November 1989 file photo, Tommy Thompson holds a $50 pioneer gold piece retrieved earlier in 1989 from the wreck of the gold ship SS Central America.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                AP Photo\/The Columbus Dispatch, Lon Horwedel<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Central America was filled with a big haul from the California Gold Rush when it sank in a hurricane in 1857. Four hundred and twenty-five people drowned, and thousands of pounds of gold were lost, contributing to an economic panic.<\/p>\n<p>Investors who backed Thompson&#8217;s venture sued him in 2005, saying they had yet to receive any money from the $50 million sale of more than 500 gold bars and thousands of coins \u2014 just part of the ship&#8217;s booty.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson, who was living in Florida, went into seclusion and then later became a fugitive when an Ohio federal judge issued a warrant for his arrest in 2012 after he failed to show up in court.<\/p>\n<p>Three years later, authorities <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/feds-reveal-how-fugitive-treasure-hunter-tommy-thompson-eluded-police-for-2-years\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">tracked Thompson<\/a><\/span> to a Florida hotel where he was living under a fake name. The judge then held him in contempt and sent Thompson to prison at the end of 2015 for refusing to answer questions about the location of missing coins.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson, now 73, maintained that the coins \u2014 valued then at $2.5 million \u2014 were turned over to a trust in Belize and said the $50 million from the sale of the first batch of gold mostly went toward legal fees and bank loans.<\/p>\n<p>He remained locked up even though federal law generally limits jail time for contempt of court to 18 months. A federal appeals court in 2019 rejected Thompson&#8217;s argument that the law applied to him, saying his refusal violated conditions of a plea agreement.<\/p>\n<p>The following year, Thompson appeared by video for another hearing where U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley again asked whether he was ready to address the whereabouts of the gold.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Your honor, I don&#8217;t know if we&#8217;ve gone over this road before or not, but I don&#8217;t know the whereabouts of the gold,&#8221; Thompson responded. &#8220;I feel like I don&#8217;t have the keys to my freedom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Just over a year ago, Marbley agreed to end Thompson&#8217;s sentence on the civil contempt charge, saying he was no longer convinced that keeping him in prison would produce an answer. The judge then ordered Thompson to immediately start serving a two-year sentence for skipping the 2012 court hearing.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8220;People kill people and get out in half the time&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p>Dwight Manley, a California coin dealer who bought and sold nearly the entire fortune, said Monday that Thompson paid a heavy price over what he described as a business dispute.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Going to prison for 10 years over a business dispute is not America,&#8221; Manley said. &#8220;People kill people and get out in half the time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sentences in civil contempt cases are somewhat indefinite, but they shouldn&#8217;t go on forever, said Ryan Scott, a University of Florida law professor who researches contempt law and worked to secure Thompson&#8217;s release.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very unusual to go on 10 years,&#8221; Scott said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2016\/11\/07\/98a55629-9159-4768-ad07-916e4c799aff\/thumbnail\/620x655\/8687cf5d86016c7c46492ade6760a0b6\/ap-1603112018034196.jpg#\" alt=\"Tommy Thompson, a former deep-sea treasure hunter, is seen in an undated photo provided by the Delaware County Sheriffs Office. \" height=\"655\" width=\"620\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2016\/11\/07\/98a55629-9159-4768-ad07-916e4c799aff\/thumbnail\/620x655\/8687cf5d86016c7c46492ade6760a0b6\/ap-1603112018034196.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2016\/11\/07\/98a55629-9159-4768-ad07-916e4c799aff\/thumbnail\/1240x1310\/c786e5de4e08b5777921fd76e522aca6\/ap-1603112018034196.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Tommy Thompson, a former deep-sea treasure hunter, is seen in an undated photo provided by the Delaware County Sheriff&#8217;s Office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                Delaware County Sheriff&#8217;s Office via AP<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He said Thompson should have been freed years ago &#8211; since at least 2018, after the court dismissed the underlying case &#8211; calling it a &#8220;miscarriage of justice for this to have gone on this long.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Treasure from the S.S. Central America has fetched millions of dollars over the years. <\/p>\n<p>In 2022, one of the largest S.S. Central America ingots ever offered at auction, an 866.19-ounce find known as a <a href=\"https:\/\/coins.ha.com\/itm\/s.s.-central-america-gold-ingots\/justh-and-hunter-gold-ingot-86619-ounces\/a\/1341-4542.s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Justh &amp; Hunter ingot<\/a>, sold for $2.16 million through Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.numismaticnews.net\/us-coins\/gold-ingot-tops-heritages-long-beach-sale\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2019<\/a>, multiple relics from the shipwreck hauled in more than $11 million at auction. In\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/news\/article\/Gold-Rush-brick-sells-for-8-million-80-pound-2860207.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2001<\/a>, an 80-pound ingot was bought by a private collector for a record $8 million.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n        <\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/tommy-thompson-treasure-hunter-ship-of-gold-missing-coins-released-prison\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former deep-sea treasure hunter who made one of the greatest shipwreck discoveries in American history and spent the past<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1044,794],"class_list":["post-69585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-florida","tag-shipwreck"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Treasure hunter who refused to disclose location of shipwreck&#039;s 500 gold coins is released from prison after a decade - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tommy Thompson found the S.S. 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