COLUMBUS, Ohio — A treasure hunter accused of cheating his investors out of their share of one of the richest hauls in U.S. history
— $50 million in gold bars and coins from a 19th-century shipwreck — was captured at an upscale Florida hotel after more than two years on the lam.
Federal marshals tracked Tommy Thompson to a Hilton in West Boca Raton and arrested him Tuesday. A warrant had been issued for him in 2012 in Columbus after he failed to show up for a hearing on a lawsuit filed by some of his backers.
The U.S. Marshals Service called him “one of the most intelligent fugitives ever sought” by the agency and said he relied on cash and employed other means to stay under the radar.
Thompson, 62, made history in 1988 when he discovered the sunken SS Central America, also known as the Ship of Gold.
The sidewheel steamer went down in a hurricane about 200 miles off South Carolina in 1857; 425 people drowned.