Cursed Gold: A Shipwreck Scandal (2024) s01e03 Episode Script

1
Tommy Thompson
has discovered
one of the greatest treasures
of all time.
You mentioned
a fairytale,
well, this is the end
of the rainbow.
But the gold
distorted people.
It warped behaviors,
it drove people to do things
they normally wouldn't do.
Thompson
has been described
as a brilliant treasure hunter,
but also a thief and conman.
He has taken the coins
and not informed the board.
$2.5 million
of pristine gold coins.
Tommy Thompson
hasn't been seen.
Now, no one
can find Thompson.
The hunter
has become the hunted.
Now Thompson's
a fugitive from justice.
Where are the coins?
The only person
who knows is Tommy.
The moment
Thompson skipped out
on court proceedings,
investors were interested
in finding him.
The US Marshals Service
is eager to do it.
Every investigation
starts the same.
What you have to do
is you have to figure out
who this person is, you know,
what are they like,
uh, background.
You know, what sort of resources
do they have available to them,
and then you start
to take it from there.
Mr. Thompson was probably
one of the hardest people
I've ever looked for
and probably one of the toughest
cases I've ever been a part of.
Tommy had disappeared.
He was gone, and he did not
want to be found.
So, I start visiting any number
of different members
of the company, friends, family.
No,
we did not know where he was.
We were worried.
I believe that
Tommy had fled with the gold
and had gone to the Bahamas
and was probably on his way
to South America.
He probably went
to Colombia
or some place in the Caribbean.
I visit Mr. Robol,
the attorney.
Very, very close friend
of Tommy.
No, I had
zero contact with him.
I did not know where he was.
It's getting nowhere,
because either they don't want
to say anything,
or just they
didn't know anything.
I have
no idea where Tommy is.
I suspect he'll never be found.
Tommy's
disappearance was mind-boggling
in a sense that
what is he hiding?
Why is he running from the law?
Maybe he has stolen
the gold coins.
There was no concrete evidence
that Tommy had done
anything wrong
until 500 gold coins
ended up missing.
They were all that remained
of the treasure
and worth
an estimated $2.5 million.
Tommy had taken them
as unpaid salary,
but the judge said
he needed to hand them over.
He was given the coins,
he paid taxes on 'em,
because he hadn't been paid
a salary for many years.
The only
reason why he had fled
is he had to report
where the coins were.
It confirmed in my mind
that he had flat out
just stolen the coins
and to hell with the investors.
That is the image
that the media was projecting
about Tommy Thompson, and it's
because it's a delicious story.
Here you have this pirate
who finds all this gold,
but he keeps it all for himself.
He has all these people
who believed in him.
He's just giving them the finger
and he's headed off
into the sunset.
And none of that is true.
It was never
about gold for Tommy.
He's a good man.
He's a man of integrity.
I thought maybe he just
couldn't take it anymore
and left the country because
we as a family used to say,
"How are you standing this, Tom?
You don't have a life."
They just kept coming after him.
Everybody from everywhere
was suing him.
We were kind of stalled
and we started looking
at different things,
and originally,
when Mr. Thompson
didn't show up for court,
three different attorneys
showed up.
Why did you folks know
to be here,
but yet Mr. Thompson saying
he didn't know
he was supposed to be here?
"Oh, well, they didn't talk
to Mr. Thompson,
they talked to his assistant,
Miss Antekeier."
And so I start to look
for Alison Antekeier,
and it quickly becomes apparent
that she's followed
the same playbook.
She's disappeared.
I've never
told this story before.
But now it's time to tell
my side of the story
and allow people to see the
truth of what really happened.
Day to day,
I would answer phones,
communicate with partners,
communicate with attorneys.
There were always
attorneys back then.
Eventually we went from working
together and being colleagues
to developing a more special
bond and friendship.
He's the most intelligent person
I've ever met.
He's got a magnetic personality.
And at some point,
I realized that I loved him,
but it wasn't
an in-love sort of situation.
It's
I believe it's
a lot deeper than that.
Everybody just figured
we had left the country,
and I think they were kind of
hoping we had, actually.
This couple
moved in, into Gracewood
and started to stay here.
They were very withdrawn
and quiet, they didn't come out.
Only the gentleman of the two
would come out once in a while.
The man struck me very odd.
We called him
the Nutty Professor.
He had bushy, crazy hair,
blown out like this.
It was crazy.
He came out
onto the deck one day
wearing nothing but underwear
and a pair of black shoes.
It was more disturbing
than funny.
He was, you know, not like
the little old man that forgets
and puts his shirt on
inside out, you know,
because of his memory.
He seemed more broken than that.
There was an unsettling vibe
about him.
He had a row
of computers, laptop,
all connected to each other.
And it seemed like that's
what was consuming his time.
And the lawsuits
at this point
had been going on for so long.
And Tom's health was declining.
Tom told me
that he had this disease.
It was called chronic fatigue.
I think that the pressure from
the lawsuits did exacerbate it.
Most people
with this disease
are bed-bound.
The worst thing about it,
if you try to get better,
if you try to push yourself,
it works just the opposite.
I was in bed
for a very long time.
Tommy had to go
to Florida.
It was just a better environment
for his health.
When the court ordered Tom
to appear,
there was no way that he could
make a trip to Ohio,
and I knew that his health
was in jeopardy at that point.
There was no choice.
Did you know
that the authorities
were looking for you?
Could you tell us about that?
I didn't know.
I didn't know the authorities
were looking for us.
But a little bit down the line?
I assumed, I guess
I assumed that they were.
But I didn't know
to what extent.
So, we came one day,
had to pick up the rent.
But they'd gone.
We had to open up the door.
I'm starting to think maybe
he was hiding out here.
Back then, it was
nothing like this.
This house was destroyed.
It was covered in garbage
of every sort.
One of the things that we found
here was a lot of books.
They were all the same.
The book said on the front,
"Ship of Gold,"
inside said "Tommy Thompson."
I didn't know who Tommy was.
I type in "Tommy Thompson,"
and it all started
to fall together.
The Nutty Professor
was Tommy Thompson.
The man that was wanted
for running away and stealing
everybody's money and gold.
And gold makes people crazy.
After I had figured out
who Tommy Thompson was,
I called the US Marshal.
Local Marshals officer
got out there
as quickly as they could.
But we just missed him.
Almost like you walk
into a house
and you feel the tea kettle
and it's warm,
as if they just
picked up and left.
With Gracewood,
that's where we really started
to make some progress.
I'm gathering evidence,
I'm seeing a lot of stuff.
There was all these bins
full of, like, multi-vitamins
and different medications.
We start finding a series
of all these different phones
and burner phones.
And then there was money straps.
The straps that go around stacks
of cash, they were everywhere.
And here's the thing that turned
it for me, was the playbook,
How To Be Invisible
by J.J. Luna.
Basically, here's
what you have to do
to make sure that the government
can't find you
if you are doing something,
you just don't want to be found.
And so, Mr. Thompson
would always use cash,
and it was very obvious because
that's how they paid rent.
Because if you have
a credit card,
it can be traced.
It was a watershed moment
for me,
and that's when I realized
this is gonna take some time.
Because he doesn't want
to be caught.
You know, he may be crazy,
but he's crazy like a fox.
With these
new developments,
of course the question
on everybody's mind is,
"Where does Tommy get
all of this cash from?"
And people inevitably come up
with some very different
answers.
You know,
I wouldn't be surprised
if he had the gold coins
melted down.
I mean, you could go around
to a pawnshop here or there
and sprinkle gold and get a lot
of money, get a lot of cash.
It was nothing like that.
Tommy didn't need
to melt down the coins.
His company paid him
a big salary for enough years
to earn him
well over $2 million.
All that he ever had
was his own money.
Now, if you receive $250,000
for most of 20 years,
that's a lot of money.
He was in charge
of an operation
that has received $22 million
of investor money.
I mean, you do that,
you have obligations.
You can't run to Florida
and hide from them.
So, after Gracewood,
Tommy and Alison
had disappeared.
I have no idea where they're at.
We know he's got
a lot of money available
'cause you're just
doing the math.
Added into the mix of it,
he's probably one
of the most brilliant people
I've ever looked for,
and it made it
a lot more difficult.
Tommy, if he
doesn't want to be found,
he'll research it,
he will find every source
of information on how to hide,
and he'll do that.
It turns out
that the same mind
that makes someone
the right candidate
for tracking down a sunken ship
would also perhaps be
very well put to use
if you needed to make
yourself disappear.
So then, you kind of want
to escalate a little bit.
And so my next step was,
let's try to put up
the billboards
and see if that works.
Now for local news,
a treasure hunter
who had once lived
near Vero Beach
is now wanted by the FBI.
Digital billboards are going up
in Ohio and here in Florida
to publicize the face
of Tommy Thompson.
As soon as Tommy
seemed to have hit the road,
a media storm explodes.
"Brilliant scientist
turned criminal,
inventor turned fugitive,
the hunter becomes the hunted."
It completely transforms
the public perception
of Tommy Thompson.
It's just a gigantic sign.
I saw it on several locations.
Big and bold.
It was gratifying to see
that they're moving on
trying to apprehend him.
You know, he needs to be held
accountable for his actions.
I was surprised
by the billboards, frankly.
You know, this was
a civil matter, as I thought it.
You know, failure
to appear in court
is something that happens
frequently
in all of the courts
of the United States.
We were living off the grid
after we left Vero Beach.
I didn't use my real name,
and Tom didn't use
his real name.
He rarely left the hotel room,
except to go to his doctors
once in a while.
We stayed within
several miles of my doctors.
If we wanted to leave
the country,
we could have easily left
the country.
This wasn't the mission.
The mission was,
this gold isn't going to do you
any good if you're dead.
It was very stressful.
It was lonely, it felt isolated,
even though we were
in the middle of a city.
But at least we had each other.
It has now been seven years
since one of Tommy's
biggest investors, John Wolfe,
filed a lawsuit to find out
what happened to all the money.
And the person who's supposed
to be in charge of the companies
is a fugitive from justice.
And so, the frustration
by 2012 is immense.
Well, it's important
to point out
that of all of the hundreds
of investors that were involved,
only two of those investors
filed suits against Tommy,
one of them being John F. Wolfe.
So, Mr. Wolfe
and his lawyers,
they asked the court
to appoint a receiver
to take over Tommy's companies,
to take over
the investor's investment.
Um, this is everything
that the receiver
finally got his hands on.
Everything that was seized.
You see boxes from 1990, these
are the organizational records,
these are records of
the recovery efforts themselves,
there's videotape here.
The mission of the receiver
is to take all the assets,
sell 'em all and turn
everything into cash
and pay the people
that are owed money.
But there is a twist
with this receivership,
because it turns out
Tommy's companies
did own million of dollars'
worth of assets.
It's just that they were
8,000 feet under the ocean,
down at the wreck site
of the SS Central America.
When Tommy found
the Central America,
he brought back
about three tons of gold,
but there was more gold
on the bottom
because the insurance companies
had sued
and nobody knew who owned it.
He wanted to go back and get it
for the investors,
but the lawsuits stopped him.
What we call
the garden of gold
on the shipwreck,
we buried that before we left.
It would take someone else
a lot of money,
a lot of know-how
and a lot of time
even to locate the wreck,
much less dig into it.
The judge issued an order
that gave the receiver authority
to salvage the gold
and sell it
to pay the investors.
Tommy would have
been distraught
over having someone else go down
on that site to pick up gold
and maybe destroy everything
he had worked so hard for.
And there's nothing
he can do about it.
Explorers
are recovering a treasure
of gold and silver
worth millions of dollars
from a ship that went down
off the coast of South Carolina
more than 150 years ago,
and they're finding
more than just gold.
Joining us now, Mark Gordon,
the president
of Odyssey Marine Exploration,
the company leading
the recovery.
Mark, it's great to have you
back on the program
It was horrible.
about this ship
and what happened to it.
Finding out
about Odyssey Marine
going back to the site.
Our team is out there
actually actively recovering
valuable items as we speak.
Something that Tom had
worked on since probably 1972,
and here was somebody
that had come in
and just taken his life's work
away from him.
the best technology
to do it.
After he's put
his heart and soul and his mind
and every part of his being
into this.
45 gold bars,
47 pieces of gold jewelry
But one thing about Tom
is he doesn't get furious.
He'll just be silent.
While the gold
gets the headlines,
we're also doing
some amazing science
It's unnerving
is what it is.
I felt bad for Tommy
in a lot of different ways.
An individual who had invested
his life in building this entity
and to know that all that
was for naught.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able
to communicate with Tommy
at that time
because he was gone.
jewelry,
2,000 gold coins
and more than 11,000
silver coins
All they did was go down
and pick up what he left there.
And I think they sold
the treasure for $30 million.
It was only
as a result of the receiver
that the investors finally got
some of their money back.
We only got $2 million.
The partners
only got $2 million.
Are you kidding me?
We're running all these
different, like, media things
and the billboards
and everything,
but it just wasn't working.
And so we had to keep
dialing it up.
What you have to do
is you have to follow
where the investigation
takes you.
So, in this particular case,
at Gracewood,
we had found all these
different medications,
they were all being issued
by particular medical clinics
and things like that.
And so we had sent a lead to one
of the Florida offices to say,
"I need you to help me out
with this investigation."
And I sent it to the right guy.
I had a theory that because they
had so much money and they had
already rented a mansion,
Vero Beach, that they were
on Palm Beach Island.
Palm Beach Island is
a very exclusive community,
and he could just stay hidden
beneath the shadows.
I was prepared to do,
what we would say,
"old school policing."
So, I just said, let me go
to every single pharmacy
in the West Palm Beach area
and see if perhaps
I could come across somebody
who had recognized him.
I went to the two pharmacies
that I found there,
but nothing came about.
The third try was the pharmacy
right there
in downtown West Palm,
and as soon as I showed
Alison's photo,
the clerk's eyes lit up.
"Yes, we recognize her.
It's the female
that wears the large hats."
The clerk informs me
that Alison had been attending
a pain clinic in Boca Raton,
which is approximately
25, 30 miles away.
I knew we had her.
We knew
that Alison frequented
the pain clinic monthly.
So, I just waited and waited.
One day, I received a phone call
from the manager
of the pain clinic.
She notified me that Alison
had actually called
to schedule an appointment
to come in.
She was going to be at
the pain clinic within an hour.
So, I begin to call all
of our task force officers,
and we raced down there
as fast as we could.
I start getting the calls
sometime in the afternoon
and saying, "It's happening."
You know, you're almost like
an expectant father,
you start pacing.
This could be
the beginning of the end.
She comes out
of the clinic, and she walks.
She walks towards
the Tri-Rail station,
and then we lose her.
And half of us flip out,
and we're on the radio saying,
"How is it possible
that we lost her?"
And I telephoned
the task force officer,
and he goes, "Listen, I don't
know if this is anything,
but I saw a taxi leave
the Tri-Rail station.
Do you want us to follow it?"
And I said, "We don't have
anything else to go on,
so yeah, follow it."
And at some point, they tell us
that, hey, the taxi
just stopped at a Hilton.
We could see that a female
stepped out of the taxi,
but we still don't know
if it's Alison.
My stress level is
at its greatest at this point.
So, the guys go around
to the front of the hotel,
and they show
pictures of Alison.
"No, I don't
recognize this person."
And all of our heads
just went down.
And then I'm like, well,
we haven't showed them
a picture of Tommy.
"Yeah, he's staying here
at this hotel."
"Oh, yeah, yeah, they've
been staying here for 22 months.
Yeah, she comes and goes
all the time,
but we don't see him
as much anymore."
Wow, we don't know
that if he's there
at this exact moment.
So, we go up to the door
and we knock.
Alison, open the door, or we're
gonna break the latch off.
This is the US Marshals,
police, open the door now.
And as soon as the door opens,
we see it's a suite.
And then as we could look
into the back bedroom,
in a white undershirt
and white underwear,
Tommy Thompson, just shaking.
And the first thought that
comes, "Oh, my god, we got him."
A good way to describe it
is living in a bubble
and having somebody come
and burst through the bubble.
It was very surreal.
For somebody that's never been
in handcuffs,
it was a unique experience
to become a criminal.
Alison turns to me
and she goes,
"You must be
so proud of yourself."
And I looked at my
I kind of was like,
"I am kind of proud of myself."
This took months to work on,
and we finally got you.
US Marshals
arrested Tommy Thompson
and his girlfriend,
Alison Antekeier,
in their room
at this Hilton Hotel
in Boca Raton, Florida.
Thompson disappeared
two years ago.
Both are expected to be
extradited to Columbus
to face charges.
When I saw
photos of Tommy
and knowing that he had gone
from being at the top
of the world
to this place
where he's put in jail,
um, it's quite sad.
I was just happy
he was found.
Let's move forward.
I was glad that he was
safe and alive, you know,
there was some concern
about whether he had passed away
or what had happened to him.
Tommy called here
right away.
I felt relieved.
But of course now
things were serious.
He'd been so sick,
now he's in jail.
Yeah, that was,
that was hard.
You think things
can't get worse, but they did.
Obviously the first thing
they're looking for
is their 500 gold
restrike coins.
And they start
a sweep of the room.
They do find any number
of different things there,
like large amounts of cash.
$425,000.
He was found
with all these burner phones
and voice changers.
The kinds of tools that you
would have if you are hiding.
Another red flag.
Not a good thing.
But everyone wants to know
where these coins are.
But no,
they weren't there.
It would have been nice
if they would have been,
but life's not like television.
Tommy's brought
back to Columbus
where he doesn't plead guilty
to theft of the coins.
He pleads guilty
to criminal contempt of court
for failing to appear
back in 2012,
and for that, he's sentenced
to two years in prison,
and he's to pay a fine,
and the judge says to him,
"Tommy, you're gonna stay
in jail
until you tell the court
where the coins are."
He also imposes a $1,000 fine
per day every day
that he is not talking.
Well, every three months there's
this little show that comes on,
and the show is the Tommy Show.
What happens is
the judge takes the bench.
Tommy comes out and he sits down
and the judge asks,
"Tommy, where's the gold?"
And Tommy basically says,
"I'm not telling you."
Show's over,
and he goes back to jail.
Lot of people think
after a few weeks of jail,
Tommy'll come clean.
Tommy doesn't come clean.
Months go by,
he's hauled back to court.
"Tommy, you gonna
tell the court?"
"No."
Back to prison.
Years go by
and people are thinking,
"Oh, come on,
he's gonna come clean."
Tommy doesn't come clean.
He was guilty of contempt
of court, and that's it.
That's all he's ever
been charged with.
The mystery is why is Tommy
stonewalling everybody
to this degree
and to his own detriment?
It just, it's very difficult
to comprehend.
As the judge said, he
had a get-out-of-jail-free card
at any time.
Why would you want to spend
any more time in jail
than you have to?
I didn't refuse to answer.
I didn't know the answer.
I put these coins
in an offshore trust in Belize.
I don't know
the specific location.
The trustee can put them
wherever he wants.
I can't access these coins.
When you're in a litigation,
they will not send you anything.
I don't believe any of it.
We see he had lawyers
prepare these documents.
I think that's part
of his incredible brilliance.
What a great smokescreen.
Jury selection started today
in a civil lawsuit
against Tommy Thompson.
So now
the Wolfes' lawsuit
has dragged on for so long
that the judge rightly decides
for the investors,
we need to have a trial,
he needs to come to court
and be judged by a jury.
Thompson has been
described over the years
as a brilliant researcher
and a treasure hunter
but also a thief and conman.
Tommy Thompson
has steadfastly refused
to say what he did
with some 500 gold coins
worth millions of dollars.
It's not clear whether investors
will get any real answers,
but their lawsuit
is finally coming to trial.
Tommy was rolled in,
physically shackled
to a wheelchair.
He had a white beard
and long hair.
He was very emaciated.
He looked like he was ill.
He saw me and recognized me,
and I recognized him,
and he actually had
a little smile.
Tommy,
where are the coins?
"Can't help you."
So, I'm called
to testify in the trial.
I felt like a deer
in the headlights.
Tommy's testimony
and Alison's testimony
is that the gold coins
were given to a stranger
to put in the offshore trust
Tommy said he formed in 2010.
There was a place
in Fort Lauderdale,
it was a private vault.
And Tom decided he wanted
to move the coins there,
which I did.
Two months later
and this is her testimony
Tommy tells her
to take out the coins,
carry these 150 pounds of coins
in four suitcases
and hand 'em over
to a complete stranger.
He made arrangements
for somebody
I don't know if it was
somebody from the trust
or somebody else
to meet me at the vault
and pick up the coins.
What's the stranger look like?
"I don't know."
Was he bigger
or smaller than me?
"I don't know."
Can you tell us any features?
"I don't know."
Tommy testified
almost identically.
He thought maybe the person
might have a feather in his hat.
When you're shipping gold,
you can either buy a lot of guns
and expensive trucks
or you can be secret about it.
This is not unusual.
That's the way it's done.
We don't know
if it's in the trust,
we have no idea
if it's anywhere.
You know, for all we know, it's
in a basement in Columbus, Ohio.
Members of a jury
deciding today
between a treasure hunter
who found millions
of dollars in gold
and his investors who are
still seeking restitution.
They deliberated, I think,
for less than two hours.
That's really short.
And then they came back
with a verdict.
After years of waiting,
investors who have sued
Tommy Thompson
to release millions of dollars
in gold finally have an answer.
When they said,
"We find for the plaintiff"
I started to relax,
and they kept saying,
"We find for the plaintiff."
The jury awarded
$19.4 million
to the people who invested
in Tommy Thompson's gold hunt.
Along with the $2 million
from the second recovery,
that pretty much added up
to the original investment.
I was disappointed.
That only pays back
the investors.
That's it. No profit.
Now as for Tommy Thompson,
well, it's back to jail
where he's been
for nearly four years now.
He was charged
with contempt of court
because he would not give up
those 500 gold coins.
I'm afraid that Tommy
is gonna die in jail.
He's so broken.
But talking to him,
talking to him
you would never know it
'cause he's
he's so optimistic.
He is an inspiration.
It's not fair
what's happened to him.
We should be honoring him.
Alright, stand by, land,
I think we can
I think
it's important to reclaim
what Tommy's
original vision was.
Dedicating his life
to open up the deep ocean
field of exploration
for the benefit of mankind.
I think
that Tommy's discovery
of the SS Central America
and the recovery of the gold,
the way he did it,
is one of the most remarkable
engineering achievements
of the 20th century.
Oh, my god, woo!
And I think Tommy
has been denied
his place in history.
I truly believe
that Tommy
is about as straight
as a dog's hind leg.
I guess you could say
greed might drive people
to change their ideals
and philosophies.
I don't think that Tommy
was driven by greed
when we first met,
but then I also don't know
how and why he changed.
This was a large
investment for our family.
The outcome did matter.
My dad, I'm gonna say
he probably never got over it.
I do feel a little angry,
especially now
that he's passed away.
I think Tommy, he is a thief.
This is a story
of good and evil.
The good is Tommy Thompson and
the people that supported him,
the evil are the people
that tore him down,
put him in jail and
pretty much ended his life.
The curse of gold is
shown by what it does to people.
Tommy Thompson is perhaps
the best example of that.
He used to be a hero,
a brilliant, clear-eyed person.
And now he's just shriveling
in a prison.
That's the curse of gold.
Tommy Thompson
cared not one whit
about treasure, about gold.
If he had not been sued
relentlessly for about 30 years,
I think that he would right now
be leading the world
in deep ocean exploration.
They said
it couldn't be done.
They said even
if we got down there,
we wouldn't be able to find it.
We turned impossibilities
into realities.