Treasure Hunters Find 2 500 year old Gold Again

mayo 21, 2022 Publicar un comentario

A old deep-sea treasure hunter is about to marker his fifth year in jail for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of 500 missing coins fabricated from gold constitute in an historic shipwreck.

Inquiry scientist Tommy Thompson isn't incarcerated for breaking the law. Instead, he's beingness held in contempt of court for an unusually long stretch - well past the normal maximum limit of an eighteen-month internment in cases of witnesses refusing to cooperate.

Merely nix is usual about Thompson's instance, which dates to his discovery of the S.S. Central America, known every bit the Ship of Gold, in 1988. The gilded rush-era ship sank in a hurricane off South Carolina in 1857 with thousands of pounds of golden aboard, contributing to an economical panic.

In this Nov 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. AP Photo/The Columbus Acceleration, Lon Horwedel

Despite an investors lawsuit and a federal court gild, Thompson still won't cooperate with authorities trying to find those coins, according to court records, federal prosecutors and the judge who found Thompson in contempt.

"He creates a patent for a submarine, just he can't call up where he put the loot," federal Guess Algenon Marbley said during a 2017 hearing.

Thompson'south legal troubles stalk from the 161 investors who paid Thompson $12.7 million to find the ship, never saw any proceeds and finally sued.

Back in 2012, a different federal judge ordered Thompson to appear in court to disembalm the coins' whereabouts. Instead, Thompson fled to Florida where he lived with his longtime female person companion at a hotel where he was living near Boca Raton. U.South. marshals tracked him down and arrested him in early 2015.

Tommy Thompson, a former deep-sea treasure hunter, is seen in an undated photo provided by the Delaware County Sheriffs Office. — Tommy Thompson, a onetime deep-sea treasure hunter, is seen in an undated photo provided by the Delaware County Sheriffs Part. Delaware County Sheriffs Part via AP

Thompson pleaded guilty for his failure to appear and was sentenced to ii years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Thompson's criminal sentence has been delayed until the issue of the gold coins is resolved.

That Apr 2015 plea deal required Thompson to answer questions in closed-door sessions nigh the whereabouts of the coins, which the government says are worth $ii 1000000 to $iv million. Chiefly, he must also "assist" interested parties in finding the coins nether that bargain.

Thompson refused several times, and on December. 15, 2015, Marbley found Thompson in contempt of courtroom and ordered him to stay in jail - and pay a $1,000 daily fine - until he responds.

In belatedly Oct of this yr, Thompson appeared by video for his latest hearing.

"Mr. Thompson, are you prepare to respond the seminal question in this instance every bit to the whereabouts of the gold?" Marbley said.

"Your honor, I don't know if we've gone over this road before or not, but I don't know the whereabouts of the golden," Thompson responded. "I feel like I don't take the keys to my liberty."

And with that, Thompson settled dorsum into his current state of affairs: housed in a federal prison in Milan, Michigan, he's now spent more than 1,700 days in jail and owes nearly $1.8 million in fines - and counting. Thompson'south attorney declined to annotate.

Thompson, 68, has said he suffers from a rare grade of chronic fatigue syndrome that has created bug with short-term memory. He'due south previously said, without providing details, that the coins were turned over to a trust in Belize.

The government contends Thompson is refusing to cooperate and that there'due south no connection between his ailment and his ability to explain where the coins are.

A federal constabulary addresses individuals like Thompson, known every bit "recalcitrant witnesses." The constabulary holds that 18 months is generally the limit for jail fourth dimension for antipathy of courtroom orders. Just a federal appeals court final year rejected Thompson'due south argument that that law applies to him.

Thompson hasn't just refused to reply questions, the courtroom ruled: He's also violated the requirement that he "assist" the parties by refusing to execute a limited power of chaser to allow that Belizean trust to be examined, as required under his plea deal.

"The club isn't intended to solely seek data, it's to seek data for the purposes of recovering these unique assets," said law professor and legal analyst Andrew Geronimo, director of Case Western University'south First Amendment Clinic.

Earlier this year, Marbley denied Thompson's request for release over concerns he's at hazard for contracting the coronavirus behind bars. Marbley said Thompson didn't present proper evidence for his adventure level, and as well noted he remains a flight run a risk.

The investors even so looking for their money say Thompson has no one simply himself to blame for his incarceration.

"He would exist out of prison house by now if he had just complied with his plea agreement and cooperated in locating missing assets when he was supposed to," attorney Steven Tigges said in a March courtroom filing.