• Treasure hunter Thomas "Tommy" Thompson, who recovered millions in gold from a shipwreck, has been in prison since 2015 for refusing to disclose the treasure's location.
• Despite a decade of imprisonment and millions in fines, Thompson remains determined to keep the gold's whereabouts a secret.
• A judge has ruled that further incarceration is unlikely to change Thompson's stance, but he will still serve two more years for criminal contempt.

A treasure hunter who swindled central Ohio investors out of millions and refused to tell anyone where he stashed the gold he discovered had one prison sentence end as he begins another.

Thomas "Tommy" Thompson, now 72, has been held in federal prison since 2015 after refusing to tell a judge — or his lawyers — where he stashed a trove of gold coins he recovered from a shipwreck.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley determined Thompson will continue to ignore court orders to provide the treasure's location and keeping him in prison would not change the result.

However, Thompson will remain in federal prison for another two years on a criminal contempt finding and face millions of dollars in fines when he is released. With Marbley's decision, Thompson will not be released from prison.

Shipwreck yielded hundreds of millions in gold now still hidden

In the 1980s, Thompson convinced investors in central Ohio to provide money toward his efforts to locate the wreckage of the S.S. Central America off the coast of South Carolina. The cargo ship, which wrecked in 1857, had been carrying a load of gold.

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The Dispatch Printing Company, which previously owned The Dispatch, was among those companies that invested in Thompson's excursion. The Dispatch was sold in 2015 and is no longer owned by the Dispatch Printing Company.

Thompson was successful in his recovery efforts, locating coins and gold bars with an estimated value of more than $100 million, The Dispatch previously reported. However, Thompson has not cooperated with efforts to provide the location of the treasure. 

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In 2013, Thompson fled to Florida and remained in hiding for two and a half years, according to court records. He was found guilty of criminal contempt for this.

In 2015, Marbley ordered Thompson held in federal prison after finding him in contempt of court until he agreed to provide the treasure's location.

As part of his finding, Marbley ordered Thompson to pay a fine of $1,000 for every day he was imprisoned.

Several lawsuits filed by jilted investors, including the Dispatch Printing Company, resulted in a more than $19 million jury verdict against Thompson in 2018.

Evidence at Thompson's trial showed he had at least one offshore bank account and had created 500 gold coins, which were minted from gold bars found in the ship's wreckage.

On Friday, Marbley said there was no point in keeping Thompson locked up because, after 10 years, he still refuses to cooperate. 

"That's the odd thing about Mr. Thompson," Marbley wrote in an order filed Friday. "He can remember everything that would help him mount a defense for why he should not comply, but he has feigned ignorance on anything that would point to the whereabouts of the gold." 

Marbley said Thompson's continuing refusal to comply shows a determination to keep the location of the gold hidden.

"For a decade, Mr. Thompson's answer at every turn has been 'no,'" Marbley wrote. "While the Court is not persuaded that Thompson is unable to comply with the order, it is no longer convinced that further incarceration is likely to coerce compliance."

Marbley also ordered Thompson to pay $3,335,000 in civil contempt fines and a $250,000 fine in the criminal contempt case.

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