After serving a ten-year prison term for contempt of court, renowned deep-sea explorer Thomas G. “Tommy” Thompson has been released from custody. The 73-year-old treasure hunter, who achieved fame in 1988 by locating the historic SS Central America shipwreck, completed his sentence on March 4, 2026.
The SS Central America, famously known as the “Ship of Gold,” met its tragic end during a hurricane in 1857 while transporting substantial quantities of California gold. The maritime disaster claimed over 400 lives. Thompson’s groundbreaking discovery of the wreck off the South Carolina coast yielded treasure valued at tens of millions of dollars.
Thompson’s release concludes one chapter of a complex legal saga that began when expedition investors filed lawsuits in 2005. These investors claimed they were denied their rightful shares from an estimated $50 million gold sale. The legal confrontation intensified when Thompson failed to appear in court proceedings in 2012, resulting in an arrest warrant.
Following his capture in 2015, Thompson was held in contempt for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of 500 gold coins described as commemorative “restrikes” from the recovered treasure. Throughout legal proceedings, Thompson maintained that these coins were transferred to a trustee in Belize around 2009 and that he possesses no knowledge of their current location.
Although the contempt order against Thompson was lifted in 2024, he remained incarcerated to complete a separate two-year sentence for his failure to appear in court. His release conditions include one year of supervised release and $250,000 in fines. The mystery of the missing gold coins, potentially linked to Belizean interests, remains unresolved.