Former Columbus treasure hunter Tommy Thompson is being ordered to pay back millions of dollars to investors who bankrolled his 1988 expedition and salvage of a famous shipwreck.
A Franklin County jury yesterday said Thompson must pay compensatory damages of nearly 20 million dollars to the plaintiffs of a civil suit against him. In 1988, Thompson recovered a portion of the estimated 30-thousand pounds of gold and treasure from the S.S. Central America, which sank off the Carolina coast in 1857. Attorneys are doubtful Thompson will pay as he has been sitting in jail for nearly four years on a contempt charge for failing to reveal the current location of the treasure still in his possession.
