Fugitive treasure hunter arrested in Florida

A fugitive treasure hunter embroiled in a legal fight over what has been described as the greatest lost treasure in US history has been arrested in Florida after more than two years on the run.

The US Marshals Service tracked Tommy Thompson to a hotel in Palm Beach and arrested him, said a senior inspector in the agency’s office in Columbus, Ohio.

A federal civil arrest warrant was issued for Thompson in 2012 for failing to show up to a key court hearing related to the fight over the gold.

Thompson made history in 1988 when he found the sunken SS Central America, also known as the Ship of Gold. In what was a technological feat at the time, Thompson and his crew brought up thousands of gold bars and coins from the shipwreck. Much of it was sold to a gold marketing group in 2000 for about $50m.

In one of the worst shipping disasters in US history, the SS Central America sank in a monster hurricane off the South Carolina coast in September 1857; 425 people drowned and thousands of pounds of California gold were lost, contributing to an economic panic.

Thompson was arrested with his long-time companion Alison Anteiker. The two had been staying in a two-person suite at a hotel in West Boca Raton for two years, authorities said. He is set for an initial appearance in federal court tomorrow in West Palm Beach.

The 161 investors who paid Thompson $12.7m to find the ship never saw returns from the sale. Two of them sued — a now-deceased investment firm president and the Dispatch Printing Company, which publishes the Columbus Dispatch newspaper and had invested about $1m.

That legal battle is continuing and those close to Thompson say it was his undoing.

Gil Kirk, who heads a Columbus estate agency and is a former director of one of Thompson’s companies, said he never cheated anyone. Mr Kirk said proceeds from the sale of the gold all went on legal fees and bank loans.