Did former fugitive and deep-sea treasure hunter Tommy Thompson really forget where he put 500 gold coins found while salvaging the S.S. Central America shipwreck, or was he just too stubborn to give them up? Either way, the whereabouts of the gold remain a mystery after he ended his stint as a guest of the Federal Bureau of Prisons on March 4, 2026, having served about 10 years on a pair of contempt of court charges for being either unwilling or unable to supply the location of the missing gold coins.
It’s a story of a historic shipwreck, sunken treasure, and lots and lots of gold that spans almost two centuries. There are also jilted investors, a fugitive treasure hunter on the run, and pounds of gold that may or may not be sitting in a trust in Belize. Thompson’s jail time included an almost unheard-of eight years for a civil contempt charge stemming from his failure to meet the requirements of his plea agreement.
Thompson’s release means investors who say they are owed roughly $2.5 million in coins may continue to be thwarted in their attempts to get their share of the loot. Unless Thompson can “remember” where the missing coins are, their treasure will remain a frustrating and elusive ghost.
It Would Be an Even Better Story if It Had Some Pirates
The SS Central America was a steam-powered paddleboat that left a port in Panama in 1857. In addition to 477 passengers and 101 crew members, the ship was carrying around 30,000 pounds of gold bars, ingots, and coins gathered during the California Gold Rush and minted in San Francisco. It was on its way to New York City when it ran into a class 2 hurricane. The storm hampered rescue efforts by nearby ships that responded, though 150 people were saved. Doomed once its boiler went out, the SS Central America sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean about 150 miles off the coast of South Carolina.
Thompson formed the Columbus-America Discovery Group of Ohio in the 1980s to gather over 160 investors as he searched for the fabled “Ship of Gold.” Salvaging from a ship more than 7,000 feet below the surface requires more than a snorkel and a deep breath, reflected by the millions Thompson raised for the endeavor. He located the shipwreck in 1988 and, using a remote-controlled submersible named Nemo, began recovering gold from it.
There are some questions about when Thompson was actually granted salvage rights to the SS Central America (it may have been as late as 2003), as 39 insurance companies that paid damages on claims made in the 19th century argued that they had a stake in the recovery. It was ultimately determined that Thompson retained 92% of the recovered gold, with the remaining 8% allocated to the insurance companies.
Trouble began simmering between Thompson and his investors after he received $52 million from the sale of gold recovered from the SS Central America. He claimed almost all of it went to pay off bank loans and legal expenses. In 2005, a group of investors filed suit against Thompson, who went into seclusion in Florida. He later went on the run after a federal judge in Ohio filed a civil contempt of court charge against him for failing to appear at a court hearing. The same court filed a criminal contempt charge against him two years later. In 2015, U.S. marshals captured Thompson, who was living under a false name in a Florida hotel.
Did Anyone Look Under the Couch Cushions?
Thompson agreed to a plea deal in 2015 for a failure-to-appear charge, which included a two-year prison sentence, a $250,000 fine, and the surrender of 500 gold coins he claimed were held in a trust in Belize. When it came time to turn over the coins, Thompson claimed that he couldn’t remember where they were. The judge sent him back to jail and assessed a $1,000-per-day fine until he revealed the location of the coins.
Whether due to short-term memory issues or unwillingness to give up the coins, Thompson continued his noncompliance with the court order, which left him in prison. He made several legal claims for his release, including one in a federal appeals court that argued the federal law under which he was being held as an “uncooperative witness” had an 18-month limit for incarceration. U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley ruled against him, citing that “objects of economic value” were involved in the violation of his plea deal. Thompson continued to claim ignorance as juries awarded damages to investors in civil cases against him.
On February 4, 2025, Judge Marbley ruled that keeping Thompson behind bars until he revealed where the coins were wasn’t working and ended the civil contempt sanction. Thompson immediately began serving the two-year sentence for criminal contempt before being released on March 4, 2026. Whether the coins will ever turn up is unknown.
It may not glitter like gold, but the bell from the SS Central America was recovered in 1988 and spent decades being displayed in various locations before finding a permanent home at the U.S. Naval Academy. The bell is next to the Herndon Monument, which was named after Captain William Lewis Herndon, who went down with the SS Central America.
Related Resources
- Failure To Appear in Court: What Can Happen? (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
- Facing the Aftermath of a Hurricane: Filing Insurance Claims (FindLaw’s Learn About the Law)
- What’s the Legal Liability for Shipwrecks? (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
