(HorizonPost.com) – In 1988, treasure hunter Tommy Thompson gathered more than 100 investors to give him nearly $13 million for his quest to find gold on a shipwreck off the coast of South Carolina. Although he was successful in his adventure, he wound up in jail for refusing to reveal to the court the whereabouts of 500 gold pieces from the sunken ship.
Instead of paying back his investors after he successfully found the gold, Thompson sold 532 bars and many coins for $52 million. His collaborators sued, and he went to jail for contempt of court in 2015, where he remains to this day.
Tommy Thompson, a former deep-sea treasure hunter, is preparing to mark his sixth year in jail for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of 500 missing gold coins. https://t.co/UY7V7TbNwU
— 10 Tampa Bay (@10TampaBay) December 9, 2021
The source of the treasure was the SS Central America, which was traveling with a large amount of the precious metal from the California gold rush in 1857. Sadly, the ship went down in a hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas along with the 578 people on board, killing 425. The ship and its approximate 11.2 tons of bounty sat at the bottom of the ocean until Thompson’s discovery in the late 80s.
Until the ex-treasure hunter cooperates with the court and produces the missing coins, it seems he will continue to serve time behind bars and accrue a daily fine of $1,000.
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