Judge approves request to sell $30M in gold

A Franklin County judge has approved a plan to sell $30 million in gold brought up from an 1857 shipwreck to help satisfy the claims of creditors and investors.

Common Pleas Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt signed the order Thursday after a brief hearing.

The 16,000 artifacts recovered in 2014 by the Odyssey Marine Exploration's dive on the wreckage of the SS Central America off the Carolina coast include gold dust, coins and bullion.

Ira O. Kane, the receiver representing investors Recovery Limited Partnership and Columbus Exploration, plans to sell the gold to California Gold Marketing Group, which will resell the gold.

After the sale's closing on Jan. 15, the money would first be used to pay creditors, and, if any is left over, investors. Under Ohio law, creditors are paid before investors.

This gold is not the bounty recovered in the original 1988 dive that is the subject of federal court proceedings involving treasure hunter Thomas G. "Tommy" Thompson, who is suspected of hiding that gold.

This could be the first time investors, who've waited 30 years for a profit, could get even a portion of their principal investment back, Quintin F. Lindsmith, the attorney for the receiver, has said.

According to a summary of the agreement sent to investors, Odyssey would receive $15 million to resolve all of its claims. The Dispatch Printing Co. would receive an initial $1.75 million toward its loans. An initial $250,000 will be held by the receivership.

Once the remainder of the $5.75 million debt owed to The Dispatch Printing Co. is paid, the balance of the purchase price will be paid to the receivership. The Dispatch newspaper has not been a property of The Dispatch Printing Co since its sale to Gatehouse Media in June 2015.

The $13 million balance of the purchase price must be paid within a year of California Gold obtaining the bounty.

None of the parties objected to Kane's proposal. Beatty Blunt commended the parties for working toward the agreement.

Thompson spoke briefly during the hearing via a video link with a federal prison in Michigan.

The treasure hunter, who began the search for the Central America gold, has been in jail since December 2015. He was found in civil contempt for refusing to cooperate with investors seeking what's left of the original haul. They're specifically looking for 500 coins struck from gold bars brought up in 1988 and valued at between $2.5 million and $4 million.

U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley holds regular hearings to ask Thompson if he is willing to cooperate. Each time, Thompson, 65, either says no or diverts to another topic.

Marbley has called Thompson a "malingerer" and told him if he was content to sit in jail, the judge was content to let him sit.

Prosecutors suspect the coins are in a trust in Belize. Thompson has refused to give the investors the power to examine the trust.