Maritime Treasure and Asset Disputes

Tommy Thompson, 73, was released last week after roughly a decade in civil‑contempt detention when a federal judge found continued confinement had lost its coercive effect; he had been jailed for refusing to disclose the location of about 500 minted gold coins from the S.S. Central America. Thompson says he does not know where the coins are and contends they were turned over to a trust in Belize and that he lacks records or memory to recover them; he still faces roughly $3.3 million in accumulated contempt fines and investor civil suits, and says about $50 million from earlier sales went largely to legal fees and bank loans.