A treasure hunter who deceived investors in central Ohio out of millions and has refused to reveal the whereabouts of gold he found is transitioning from one prison sentence to another.

Thomas “Tommy” Thompson, aged 72, has been incarcerated in federal prison since 2015 for not disclosing to a judge—or even to his own lawyers—where he hid a collection of gold coins he retrieved from a shipwreck.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley ruled that Thompson would persist in disregarding court orders to share the location of the treasure, and keeping him in prison would not alter his refusal.

As a result, Thompson will spend an additional two years in federal prison due to a charging of criminal contempt and will be liable for millions in fines upon his release. Following Marbley’s ruling, Thompson will not be freed from prison anytime soon.

Shipwreck Revealed Hundreds of Millions in Gold Still Concealed

In the 1980s, Thompson persuaded investors from central Ohio to fund his search for the wreckage of the S.S. Central America, which sank off the coast of South Carolina in 1857 while carrying a cargo of gold.

The former owner of The Dispatch, The Dispatch Printing Company, was among the investors in Thompson’s expedition. However, The Dispatch was sold in 2015 and is no longer affiliated with the Printing Company.

Thompson successfully recovered coins and gold bars valued at over $100 million, as previously reported by The Dispatch. Nonetheless, he has not complied with requests to disclose the treasure’s location.

In 2013, Thompson went into hiding in Florida for two and a half years, as noted in court documents. He was found guilty of criminal contempt for this action.

In 2015, Marbley ordered Thompson to be held in federal prison after ruling him in contempt of court, demanding that he reveal the treasure’s location.

As part of the ruling, Marbley imposed a daily fine of $1,000 for the duration of Thompson’s imprisonment.

Several lawsuits from defrauded investors, including The Dispatch Printing Company, culminated in a jury verdict of over $19 million against Thompson in 2018.

Trial evidence revealed that Thompson maintained at least one offshore bank account and had minted 500 gold coins from bars salvaged from the shipwreck.

On Friday, Marbley expressed skepticism about the necessity of keeping Thompson in custody, given his persistent refusal to cooperate over the past decade.

“That’s the peculiar thing about Mr. Thompson,” Marbley noted in a filed order. “He seems to remember everything that would assist his defense regarding non-compliance but pretends not to recall anything about the location of the gold.”

Marbley remarked that Thompson’s ongoing defiance indicates a resolve to keep the treasure’s location hidden.

“For ten years, Mr. Thompson has responded with ‘no’ at every turn,” Marbley stated. “While the Court does not believe Thompson is incapable of complying with the order, it is no longer certain that further imprisonment will compel compliance.”

Marbley also mandated that Thompson pay $3,335,000 in civil contempt fines and a criminal contempt fine of $250,000.