Story highlights Tommy Thompson hired scientists and engineers to dive for gold in sunken historic ship

He garnered millions in investments and loot then disappeared

(CNN) Tommy Thompson was an ocean explorer, an entrepreneur, an author and a diver for sunken gold.

So when he dropped off the map in 2006, many wondered what had happened.

The feds say they know. Thompson, they say, was also a multimillion dollar scammer who went on the lam rather than pay back his investors after he found millions in treasure at the bottom of the Atlantic.

To cover their tracks, Thompson and Alison Antekeier, his girlfriend, used false names, the U.S. Marshal Service said. And they allegedly paid for everything in cash.

They likely had plenty of it.

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