Overview
- Thompson, 73, left federal custody Wednesday after more than a decade detained for civil contempt tied to gold recovered from the 1857 S.S. Central America.
- The judge found that continued incarceration had lost its coercive effect meant to force disclosure of the coins’ location.
- He remains under court supervision and still faces roughly $3.3 million in accumulated contempt fines as civil litigation continues.
- Thompson has long said he cannot remember where the approximately 500 coins are and has claimed they were placed in a Belize trust.
- He failed to appear for a 2012 court hearing and was captured by U.S. Marshals in 2015 at a Florida hotel after years as a fugitive.