Shipwreck treasure hunter held on fraud charges after years on the run

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Tommy Thompson holds a US$50 pioneer gold piece retrieved earlier in 1989 from the wreck of the gold ship Central America. Photo: AP

Published: 10:00pm, 29 Jan 2015Updated: 10:17pm, 29 Jan 2015

A treasure hunter who allegedly defrauded investors after recovering tens of millions of dollars worth of gold from a shipwreck was arrested in south Florida after years on the run and was due to appear in federal court.

Tommy Thompson was detained on Tuesday night at a Hilton hotel in Palm Beach County, said Barry Golden, a spokesman for the US Marshals Service in the Southern District of Florida.

US marshals in Ohio said Thompson would be extradited in a matter of days to that state, where he was charged in 2012 with criminal contempt for failing to appear in federal court to reveal the location of gold and funds from his treasure hunt.

Tommy Thompson (left) and his long-time companion Alison Anteike were taken into custody in Florida on Tuesday, two years after he failed to attend a court hearing.

Thompson was arrested with a woman, Alison Antekeier, who also has an outstanding arrest warrant in Ohio, according to Golden. They appeared to have been living in the hotel for about two years.

Thompson used sonar and robot technology to discover the shipwrecked SS Central America in a 1988 expedition. The ship carried as much as 21 tonnes of gold from the California mines when it sank in 1857.

More than 400 people drowned and the loss of gold contributed to a US banking panic.