A fugitive treasure hunter plans to plead guilty to a contempt of court charge related to his refusal to testify about gold he discovered from a historic shipwreck. A plea agreement in federal court last week in Columbus, now means the the case of Tommy Thompson will move forward. The 62-year-old Thompson went missing three years ago. He and his longtime companion, Alison Antekeier, were nabbed in January at a hotel where he was living near Boca Raton, Florida. Thompson is accused of cheating investors since he discovered the S.S. America, known as the Ship of Gold, in 1988. That’s the gold-rush era ship that sank in a hurricane off South Carolina in 1857 with thousands of pounds of gold aboard. Thompso and his crew brought up thousands of bars and coins, which were sold to a gold marketing group for about $50 million. The 161 investors who paid Thompson $12.7 million to find the ship never saw the proceeds. They sued him. The plea agreement includes terms of Thompson’s cooperation with the government, and must be accepted by the court. The next hearing in Thompson’s case is scheduled for this Wednesday. Thompson has been in custody in Ohio for several weeks following his extradition from Florida, where he rented a Vero Beach mansion, paid rent in cash and put the utilities in the landlord’s name. Inside the mansion were pre-paid disposable cellphones and bank wraps for $10,000, along with a book called “How to Live Your Life Invisible.”
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