Out of prison at last, the man behind a famed deep-sea haul refuses to share the map to the gold

Tommy Thompson was released from federal prison on March 4 after serving more than a decade for civil contempt in a long-running dispute over treasure from the wreck of the S.S. Central America.

Thompson, 73, is a research scientist and former deep-sea treasure hunter. He located the S.S. Central America—known as the “Ship of Gold”—in 1988. The vessel lay more than 7,000 feet (2,134 meters) below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The steamship sank in a hurricane in September 1857, killing 425 passengers and crew and sending 30,000 pounds (13,608 kilograms) of California gold to the seafloor.

Treasures from the site have sold for eye-watering sums. A gold ingot sold for a record $8 million in 2001. Another sold for $2.16 million in 2022. More than $11 million worth of relics were auctioned in 2019. Even so, some of the treasure remains unaccounted for.

Legal battles began years after the discovery. Investors sued Thompson in 2005, alleging they were not paid from the sale of gold bars and coins. They accused him of cheating them out of millions, with one claim pointing to a $50 million sale of gold bars and thousands of coins. Thompson has said the $50 million went largely toward legal expenses and bank loans. He has maintained that 500 missing coins—valued at about $2.5 million—were placed in a trust in Belize.

In 2012, Thompson failed to appear in court in Ohio and became a fugitive. He was arrested in 2015 and held in contempt for refusing to disclose the location of the coins. In court, he 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 gold,” according to WTAJ. In 2019, a federal appeals court rejected his argument that the contempt jail time should be limited, concluding that his continued refusal to cooperate violated a plea agreement.