Former U.S. treasure hunter faces sentencing, contempt hearing

(Reuters) - A former treasure hunter and fugitive who was captured after two years eluding authorities has refused to answer questions about missing coins and could be found in further contempt on Tuesday at his sentencing, a federal judge in Ohio said on Monday. Thomas "Tommy" G. Thompson, 63, was captured in Florida in January with his girlfriend, Alison Antekeier, with hundreds of thousands of dollars they had received for loot recovered from a shipwreck that was due his crew and investors, prosecutors said. Both pleaded guilty to criminal contempt and agreed to forfeit the $425,380 in cash authorities seized from them when they were captured. Thompson and Antekeier also agreed to help authorities identify people who assisted them while they were fugitives and to help identify missing assets. Prosecutors have asked that Thompson receive the maximum two-year prison sentence. Antekeier, 48, was sentenced in October to a month in jail after taking into account time already served and a period of house arrest. Thompson has terminated two attorneys in the lead-up to sentencing, with his third recent attorney filing an appearance on Monday and asking U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley to delay Tuesday's proceedings. Thompson's company, Columbus Exploration, confirmed in 1988 that it had found the wreck of the SS Central America, which sank in 1857 off the coast of South Carolina, killing more than 400 people. The company then brought up gold coins and bars worth millions. Members of his team accused Thompson of failing to pay them. The ship had been carrying as much as 21 tons of gold from California mines when it sank. Thompson skipped an August 2012 court hearing to account for the location of gold coins and money. Arrest warrants were issued for both Thompson and Antekeier, his then assistant and now girlfriend, who failed to appear as a witness in the civil case in November 2012, prosecutors said. Authorities did not track them down until late January when they were found at a Hilton Hotel, where they had been living under assumed names and paying living expenses with cash. The former Columbus residents were extradited to Ohio, where the civil litigation over the shipwreck was being heard. (Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Leslie Adler)