COLUMBUS – Treasure hunter Thomas “Tommy” Thompson again didn’t reveal where the loot is, and a federal judge again sent him back to jail until his memory improves.
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“As long as you’re content to be the master of misdirection and deceit, I’m content to let you sit,” U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley told Thompson in a hearing Monday on his civil charge of contempt of court.
Thompson has been held in contempt since mid-December when Marbley found Thompson violated a plea deal by refusing to respond.
Investors in Thompson’s search for the gold ship SS Central America, which sank in a hurricane off South Carolina in 1857, have been fighting for their share of the estimated $500 million bounty discovered in 1988. They especially are interested in the 500 coins minted from bars of recovered gold. Those coins have an estimated value of $2.5 million.
Thompson, 63, was on the lam from 2012 until his arrest in Florida in January 2015. He has been in the Delaware County jail since, and in several meetings last year, he failed to reveal the location of the coins or other treasure. The prosecutor said Thompson was “evasive.”
“I was hoping you’d have an epiphany today,” Marbley told Thompson on Monday.
“I’ve said everything I know,” Thompson said. As for the minted coins, he said, he “never saw them, never touched them.” In the past, he has blamed his memory loss on poor health
“I’m going to take that as a ‘No,’ ” the judge said. “That is almost like, ‘The dog ate my homework.’ ”
Marbley ordered Thompson to remain in jail with another hearing in 60 days.
Thompson is also being fined $1,000 a day until he cooperates.