A former treasure hunter is ordered to stay in prison again after he failed to remember the whereabouts of the gold coins he discovered on a century old shipwreck. A judge ruled on Monday, to keep him in jail until he regains his memory and reveal the location of the said treasures.
Thomas "Tommy" G. Thompson, 63 years old from Columbus in Ohio is being withheld in jail since his 2015 arrest. Reuters reported, Thompson was summoned for court appearances to reveal the location of the 500 commemorative gold coins he found back in the year 1988 in the SS Central America shipwreck.
He received a one-year sentence of "supervised release" in December, ordered to pay a $250,000 fine and 208 hours of community service for failing to appear before a judge three years ago to answer similar questions.
"As long as you're content to be the master of misdirection and deceit, I'm content to let you sit," U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley told Thompson in contempt of a court order in a civil lawsuit over the treasure on Monday, Columbus Dispatch reported.
Thompson's search team and investors had accused him of failing to give them their share over the estimated $500 million worth bounty discovery. The 500 gold coins were worth of $2.5 million, which the plaintiffs were most interested in.
The former treasure hunter was on the run from 2012 until his arrest in Florida in January 2015. He has been jailed in the Delaware County jail. His longtime companion girlfriend was also arrested with him on the said location, according to Recorder. Thompson told the judge that he "never saw or touched the coins".
He told the court last December he suffered short-term memory loss due to stroke, chronic fatigue and other physical problems, that's why he cannot remember anything. He previously said, the coins were given in Belize, however, the government doesn't believe him. Thompson is scheduled to reappear in federal court in Ohio on May 16.
SS Central America carried as much as 21 tons of gold from California mines that sank in 1857 off the coast of South Carolina, killing 400 people aboard.
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