Thomas «Tommy» Thompson, 73, an Ohio scientist and treasure hunter who recovered a large amount of gold from an 1857 shipwreck, has been released from federal prison, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Thompson had been in jail since 2015 after a federal judge in Columbus found him in contempt of court for refusing to disclose where he stored gold coins and bars recovered from the «SS Central America» shipwreck.
The steamship sank during a hurricane off the coast of South Carolina in 1857 while traveling from California to New York, carrying an estimated 21 tons of gold. Around 425 passengers and crew members died, many of them miners returning from the California Gold Rush.
In the 1980s, Thompson raised funding from about 160 investors, many from Ohio, to search for the wreck. His team located it in 1988 and recovered gold coins and bars believed to be worth more than $100 million. However, Thompson refused to share information about the remaining treasure, leading to legal disputes with investors and insurance companies.
He continued to withhold the information even after a court ordered him to reveal where additional gold was hidden, repeatedly claiming he could not remember its location. The exact location of the remaining gold is still unknown.
