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 County and arrested him, said Brian Babtist, 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 that was later sold to a gold marketing group in 2000 for about 50 million dollars.
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 12.7 million dollars 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 a million dollars.
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 last year that Thompson never cheated anyone. Mr Kirk said proceeds from the 2000 sale of the gold all went on legal fees and bank loans.
"He was a genius, and they've stolen his life," Mr Kirk said of those who sued.
Thompson went into seclusion in 2006, moving into a mansion called Gracewood in Vero Beach, Florida. Six years later, after the arrest warrant was issued, he vanished.
When the property's caretakers searched it soon afterwards, they found prepaid disposable phones and bank wraps for 10,000 dollars scattered about, along with a bank statement in the name of Harvey Thompson showing a million dollar balance, an estate agent for the property said in court records. Harvey, according to friends, was Thompson's nickname in college.
Also found was a book called How To Live Your Life Invisible. One marked page was titled: "Live your life on a cash-only basis."