John Kleeberg writes:

A federal judge has ruled that the attorney for a shipwreck salvager repeatedly lied to the court about documents detailing how much gold had been recovered from a site off the coast of South Carolina.

U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley concluded last week that Richard Robol "committed a fraud upon the court" by denying that his client possessed inventories of the more than $40 million in gold coins and bars brought up from the SS Central America shipwreck more than two decades ago.

Robol was the longtime attorney for companies operated by Tommy Thompson, who is now a federal fugitive. Investors in Thompson's Recovery Limited and Columbus Exploration companies had tried for seven years to obtain the inventories.

They wanted to determine how much of the recovered gold was sold to California Gold Marketing in 2000 and whether any had been missing. Robol said in numerous court proceedings that California Gold possessed the only inventory.

A court-appointed receiver who took over Thompson's companies last summer found more than 20 inventories of the gold in file cabinets taken from properties owned by Robol. Some were the original inventories made when the gold was removed from the shipwreck from 1988 to 1991.

The Dispatch Printing Company, an investor in Thompson's expedition, filed motions for sanctions against Robol in October as part of a larger federal lawsuit regarding the shipwreck's proceeds.

Steve Tigges, an attorney for Dispatch Printing, said that withholding the inventories and "misrepresenting their existence to the court" kept the court-ordered accounting of the gold and its proceeds hidden for years.

"It is very important to vindicate the integrity and dignity of the court," Tigges said. "If lawyers are allowed to misrepresent facts without any consequences, the entire system does not work."

Dave Bowers adds:

To read the complete article, see:Judge finds that attorney lied in case related to gold ship(www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/05/14/attorney-ordered-to-pay-costs.html)