Ohio man who hid millions in shipwreck gold released from prison
USA TODAY
Thomas \
An Ohio scientist and treasure hunter who is accused of bilking some 160 investors out of millions of dollars in gold recovered from an 1857 shipwreck and refusing to tell anyone where he stashed the gold has been released from prison.
Thomas "Tommy" Thompson, 73, was released from federal prison March 4, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed to The Dispatch. Thompson had been ordered incarcerated since 2015 after refusing to tell a federal judge in Columbus – or his own lawyers – where he stashed a trove of gold coins and gold bars from the shipwreck.
The shipwreck – named the S.S. Central America – occurred in 1857 during a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of South Carolina as the vessel, carrying an estimated 21 tons of gold, was bound for New York. Approximately 425 passengers, many of them successful prospectors of the California Gold Rush, and crewmembers died.
While Thompson finished one prison sentence in February 2025, he began a second sentence on a criminal contempt finding and will have to pay millions of dollars in fines.
In the 1980s, Thompson convinced some 160 investors, many from central Ohio or elsewhere in the Buckeye state, to provide money toward his efforts to locate the wreckage of the S.S. Central America.
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