Treasure-hunter-turned-federal-fugitive Tommy Thompson agreed Wednesday to turn over the 500 gold coins at the center of a legal disputewith investors who haven't seen a dime of the riches he recovered 30 years ago from a shipwreck off the South Carolina coast.

On the day that Thompson, 66, was scheduled to testify in a Franklin County courtroom as part of the lawsuit brought by one of the investors, theDispatch Printing Co., he agreed to settle the case and surrender the missing gold rather than take the stand.

As part of the tentative agreement, Thompson is to deliver the coins to the court-appointed receiver in the case by 5 p.m. Sunday.

In the late 1980s, Thompson and his crew salvaged 3 tons of gold, silver and artifacts from the fabled 1857 shipwreck of the S.S. Central Americasteamship, an effort funded by about 300 Columbus-based investors. The value of the treasure was estimated at $100 million. The coins, minted fromgold bars recovered from the ship, were among the items to be distributed to investors.

Not only did Thompson not pay any proceeds to the investors, he fled in 2012 with his assistant and sometimes girlfriend Alison Antekeier ratherthan show up for contempt hearings in federal court. They were on the run until January 2015, when they were arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service ata Hilton hotel in Boca Raton, Florida.

To read the complete article, see:
Tommy Thompson agrees tosurrender gold coins in tentative settlement(https://www.dispatch.com/news/20181114/tommy-thompson-agrees-to-surrender-gold-coins-in-tentative-settlement)

Two days after reaching a tentative legal settlement in which he agreed to surrender 500 missing gold coins, imprisoned treasure hunter TommyThompson testified Friday that he has no idea how to obtain the loot.

In testimony so meandering that the Franklin County Common Pleas judge interrupted several times to instruct Thompson to directly answer thequestions, the 66-year-old former Battelle scientist suggested that the trust holding the coins likely wouldn't respond to any inquiriesbecause of ongoing litigation over the treasure he recovered from an 1857 shipwreck.

He also couldn't identify the stranger who took the coins from his then-girlfriend in the lobby of a self-storage business in FortLauderdale, Florida, in 2010. He couldn't recall the details of the exchange, other than making plans on the phone, and said that the strangerpresumably deposited the coins in Belize, where Thompson had set up a trust.

"I wanted them to be safe," Thompson said.

When confronted by Tigges about the judge's order, Thompson said he is caught in a legal "conundrum."

"I'm supposed to have the keys to my freedom by telling where the coins are, but I don't know where the coins are," he said. "I putthem in an off-shore trust. The trustee can put them anywhere he wants. ... unless this is a Russian kind of thing, you can't keep people injail for no reason. I can't access these coins."

Under questioning from Quintin Lindsmith, attorney for the receiver, Thompson admitted that he considered the coins to be his personal propertyand took them for "my compensation."

Thompson veered off in so many directions during his five hours on the stand that Beatty Blunt called for a recess early in the day to admonishhim.

He was likely confusing jurors, she told him, despite having the intellect to recover lost treasure from 7,000 feet beneath the sea. "You are nodummy, sir," she said.

To read the complete article, see:
Treasurehunter Tommy Thompson testifies that he doesn't have access to missing gold coins(https://www.dispatch.com/news/20181117/treasure-hunter-tommy-thompson-testifies-that-he-doesnt-have-access-to-missing-gold-coins)

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
S.S. CENTRAL AMERICA COMMEMORATIVE RESTRIKE CLUES(http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n19a37.html)
S.S. CENTRAL AMERICA KELLOGG RESTRIKES STILL MISSING(http://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n01a29.html)