A deep-sea treasure hunter who has served nearly a decade in jail for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of missing gold coins has scored a legal win but he will remain behind bars for now.
Tommy Thompson's sentence on a civil contempt charge was ended by US District Judge Algenon Marbley but, at the same time, he ordered the research scientist immediately start serving a two-year sentence for a related criminal contempt charge, a term that was delayed when the civil contempt term was imposed.
Thompson’s case dates to his discovery of the S.S. Central America, known as the Ship of Gold, in 1988.
The gold rush-era ship sank in a hurricane off South Carolina in 1857 with thousands of pounds of gold aboard, contributing to an economic panic.
Thompson won’t cooperate with authorities trying to find 500 coins minted from some of the gold, according to court records.
He has previously said, without providing details, that the coins — valued at about $2.5 million — were turned over to a trust in Belize.
Thompson has been held in contempt of court since 15 December, 2015, and also incurred a daily fine of $1,000. In his ruling, Marbley assessed Thompson’s total civil contempt fine at $3,335,000.
After Thompson failed to appear for a 2012 Ohio hearing to discuss the coins, US marshals eventually tracked him to Florida in 2015 and arrested him.
He pleaded guilty in April 2015 to skipping that hearing and was given the two-year prison sentence.
Federal law generally limits jail time for contempt of court to 18 months. But a federal appeals court in 2019 rejected Thompson’s argument that that law applies to him, saying his refusal violated conditions of a plea agreement.
