Investors want tally of salvaged gold - Lawsuit seeks court takeover of treasure firms
Arizona Coin Collector
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/01/11/gold_ship.ART_ART_01-11-09_B3_EDCGKGR.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101
Investors want tally of salvaged gold - Lawsuit seeks court takeover of
treasure firms
Sunday, January 11, 2009 3:18 AM
By Kevin Mayhood
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Former Battelle engineer-turned-treasure-hunter
Thomas G. Thompson pulled one of the largest stashes
of gold known to sink in the Atlantic Ocean from the
seafloor 20 years ago.
But dividing the treasure among investors has proved
more difficult than recovering it from the SS Central
America.
Estimates of the value have varied from $21 million
for the gold by weight, to the $100 million to $400
million that collectors of Gold Rush-era old coins
and bars might be willing to pay.
In the latest court action, The Dispatch Printing
Company and Donald C. Fanta, former president of the
Ohio Co., complain that Thompson and the directors
of companies formed to find and market the gold have
failed to give investors a true accounting of what
happened to it.
The side-wheel steamer was carrying 578 passengers
and crew members and an estimated 3 tons of gold
bars, coins, nuggets and dust to New York from Panama
in 1857. The ship sank during a hurricane about 160
miles off the South Carolina coast.
Frederick B. Hill III, a retired Columbus executive,
holds just a little hope that he'll ever see a return
on his investment.
"We haven't heard anything for years," he said.
Hill, one of the original 90 investors who raised
$9 million for the effort, hasn't filed any lawsuits
and said he expects he'll end up with nothing.
According to court records, The Dispatch and Fanta,
both of which invested a total of $1.5 million, are
asking U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus to
appoint an independent manager to take over the
gold companies, Recovery Limited Partnership and
Columbus Exploration.
The manager would sort out the finances and
distribute returns to investors.
The lawsuit says that Thompson and directors Gilman
D. Kirk, James F. Turner, Michael J. Ford and Arthur
Cullman Jr. have illegally taken over the companies
and failed for years to provide financial reports
or hold annual meetings at which investors could
vote for new directors.
Steve Tigges, an attorney for The Dispatch and
Fanta, said investors have been excluded from
participating "in the businesses that they own."
According to the suit, Thompson wrote to investors
in September 1989, while salvagers raised the gold,
that he would take a careful inventory.
The suit complains that the inventory and several
documents were not provided by Thompson, the
directors or their attorney, Rick Robol, to
accountants hired to review the books.
Robol did not return calls seeking comment.
Under a 2006 court agreement, Thompson and the
directors were to provide a full paper trail to
an accountant hired by The Dispatch and Fanta.
The latest motion asks Sargus to order the
defendants to pay $337,018 to cover additional
accounting and lawyers' fees during the delay.
Rex Elliott, who represents Thompson, said that
his client is out of the country.
Columbus attorney Michael Szolosi Sr. represents
a group of 10 technicians who helped salvage the
gold and claim they are owed about $12 million.
The group sued in 2006.
Szolosi said he's awaiting answers to
jurisdictional questions before he can proceed
with their case before Sargus.
..