He Chose 11 Years In Prison Over $50M In Gold!

[jeff of pa]

it's Cool he Screwd them Over.....
& would be better IF the 50 Million is his when he Gets Out !

 

[russau]

I don't know if I could have made the same choice ! 50 M is a big number BUT prison is a tough way to go through life ! and who's to say it will still be where it was when he gets out OR if he will get caught with it when he dose ? Freedom is a GREAT THING we have here is good ole U.S.A. !!!!!!!!!!! Why risk it !

 

[Physics guy]

Tommy Thompson was released Mar 4, 2026. If he wanted to launch a new treasure hunt, I don’t think he’ll find any investors.

 

[enrada]

What makes any of you believe that he knew where it was. Why can't you believe that he was telling the court the truth about not remembering where it was? Maybe his girlfriend hid it in a storage facility in Costa Rica.
Try to understand how big a success the search project was. 1400 square miles in 40 days in 7,200 feet of water.
The longest anybody has remained in jail for contempt was 14 years. Tommy just ran into an arrogant Judge Algenon Marbley in Columbus.

 

[Physics guy]

I’m undecided on this. On the one hand, he went on the lam and was a fugitive for two years; on the other hand, I can’t imagine someone electing to spend 10+ years in prison for any amount of money. But for the investors, whether he stole it, forgot where he put it, or doesn’t have access to it, the end result is the same: a large part of the recovered treasure is missing. Not an encouraging indicator for any future investors.

 

[enrada]

I would invest in him in a heartbeat for the search and salvage of a project. I just wouldn't allow him or Greg Stemm to manage the project after recovery.

 

[Crow]

Legal Commercial treasure hunting is dead. Governments are, in essence, mafia economies. They began to see the money in shipwrecks, and their enforcers are lawyers and the legal system, virtue-signaling about archaeology, that are legislating treasure hunters out of existence. Treasure hunting is a high-risk business proposal. Many things can go wrong. It's not an encouraging vocation when you take time, effort, and money and actually discover treasure. Your profit margin is weaseled away by lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and the legal system. That is now happening the world over. Tommy Thompson was a victim of all of this by the legal system. The investors became the casualties of a legal system determined to destroy commercial treasure hunting.

If I am an investor, why would I tie my money up in constant legal battles? The only ones making money are lawyers.

There are better investments out there, for example.

For 10000 dollars invested in 2003 When Fortescue Ltd (originally Allied Mining and Processing, then Fortescue Metals Group) first listed and traded under the Fortescue name on the ASX, its share price was just 2 cents (0.02 AUD); A 10000 dollar investment it created 500000 shares; today, those shares are worth 16.75 per share

500000 shares at 2 cents pr share at the current price: 16.75. That 10 thousand invested is now worth 8.375 million. Doubling your money 837 times the original investment. Plus, in the Past 10 years, a single share has accumulated roughly A$9.73 in dividends.

So why would anyone invest in a legal minefield of claims and counterclaims by lawyers and the legal profession?


Crow

 

[russau]

Crow, VERY GOOD POINT TO MAKE !!

 

[3RDLIFE]

Must still be a decent business plan as I have friends who make bank as divers, engineers and machine operators for salvage companies. Beyond normal wages for maritime work which are good to start with.

 

[Crow]

Must still be a decent business plan as I have friends who make bank as divers, engineers and machine operators for salvage companies. Beyond normal wages for maritime work which are good to start with.

First, you have to distinguish between a commercial treasure operation and a commercial salvage business. Two very different beasts. There are a few companies around the world that salvage ships as per contract via insurers but also work in the oil industry. Renewable energy industry. Deep-sea mining industry. Their scope is very broad, and they indeed can make big money. Sure, the crew, divers, engineers, and marine salvage specialists get paid. But you need a profit margin to warrant the risk.

Take this ship below, for example; its cargo is worth 155 million. It is a deep-sea proposition. There is no violation of war graves, historical shipwreck agreements with UNESCO, or any country's territorial waters. The deal is with the insurers, as the vessel, when it sank, was beyond technological innovation to salvage at the time. Today it is a complex deep recovery, but by no means the deepest. There are about 5 companies world wide have ability pull off such a project.

But do not be fooled; there are many challenges in such a recovery operation. It all comes down to how she sits on the sea floor. Deep-sea and major offshore marine salvage operations typically cost between $50,000 and $200,000 per day for basic vessel and equipment charters, while total large-scale recovery projects for massive shipwrecks range from $10 million to over $2 billion. classic example of Costa Concordia salvage operation. The Costa Concordia disaster salvage operation was one of the largest, most complex, and most expensive maritime recovery missions in history, costing an estimated $1.2 billion, and that was not a deep-sea operation.

Having salvage ship crews and equipment sitting idle because of bad weather, for example, burns through the profit margin. The insurer is the legal owner of the shipwreck, as they had legally paid out on the loss of the ship and cargo. The value of the cargo was $2,932 per metric ton at the time of loss, based on historical producer and reference data. Today, the value of the cargo is 16,449.50 USD per ton. So the devil is in the details of the deal. Where the insurer is the legal owner of the shipwreck, gets a cut, and the recovery project gets enough of a cut to fund the project through investors. The profit margin has to be big enough to warrant the risk.

Finding the vessel costs money; signing an international business contract with a legal team costs money. Hiring crew and skilled specialists costs money. Acquiring venture capitalists to risk their money requires a big return. My cut from such a project for my consultation and research is one percent if I choose to go ahead with it. Investors will need to fund at least 20-30 million to fund the project. And the project will be like a mining operation and will be funded progressively in stages to a successful conclusion.

So it's absolutely nothing like the movies portray; big financial rewards come with big financial risks.

Crow

 

[Crow]

Getting back to Tommy Thompson, the case in question.

The legal case of deep-sea treasure hunter Tommy Thompson has cost millions across multiple categories of fines, jury verdicts, and operational losses:

Civil Contempt Fines: $3,335,000. Thompson was held in civil contempt of court starting in December 2015 for refusing to disclose the location of 500 missing gold coins. He was penalized $1,000 per day for more than nine years until a judge capped and finalized the total fine in early 2025.

Investor Lawsuit Verdict: $19.4 million. In November 2018, an Ohio jury ordered Thompson to pay this amount in compensatory damages to a court-appointed receiver and a printing company representing the 161 original investors who funded his 1988 expedition to the SS Central America but never received payouts

Criminal Contempt Fine: $250,000. Thompson was ordered to pay this statutory fine after pleading guilty to failing to appear at a mandatory 2012 court hearing. Expedition Proceeds Spent on Legal Costs: ~$50 million. Thompson claimed that nearly all the proceeds from the initial sale of salvaged gold bars and coins in 2000 were entirely drained by ongoing bank loans and legal fees rather than kept as personal profit. Tommy Thompson's assets were only 340 thousand dollars, not quite the fortune many expected.the banks and legal system robbed him.

Governments like to control the narrative. Tommy Thompson challenged the narrative, and the legal system punished him.


Crow

 

[Darren in NC]

Crow, I agree that the "shipwreck treasure" business is dead. The only exception I know of in the U.S. is to find something in federal waters. State waters is dead. Int'l waters is dead, too. But if you have a viable wreck in federal waters, and can get the rights for salvor-in-possession, then...

 

[3RDLIFE]

There wrecks being worked in federal waters right now off rhe East coast. AIS and satellite make everything visible. I tracked them just for new shipwrecks to spearfish on as that was my job. I still track everything but it's more hobby than livelihood.

 

[Physics guy]

Martin Bayerle has title to the RMS Republic, 50 miles south of Nantucket in 270 feet of water. He is planning recovery in 2027 if he can raise the funds needed.

 

[Physics guy]

Archeologists got a free ride off of treasure hunters with the Mercedes, the Trinite, the San Jose, and others. Now they’re on their own dime and have to look for treasure in the ocean instead of a courtroom. They’ve killed the goose that laid the golden egg.

 

[BennyV]

Martin Bayerle has title to the RMS Republic, 50 miles south of Nantucket in 270 feet of water. He is planning recovery in 2027 if he can raise the funds needed.

I’ve been following this one pretty closely. Hope he finds what he’s looking for.