What do you do when a man takes off with millions in sunken treasure?

For the past two years, U.S. marshals have been on the hunt for Tommy Thompson, the man who made the greatest lost treasure discovery in American history back in 1988.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Thompson has been on the run as a fugitive after he skipped a court date to explain to investors what had happened to the riches he discovered.

You can be a light in the darkness with "prayer and action."

"I think he had calculated it, whatever you want to call it, an escape plan," marshals agent Brad Fleming said. "I think he's had that for a long time."

In 1983, Thompson-then an oceanic engineer at Battelle Memorial Institute-became obsessed with tracking down the SS Central America, a ship that went down off the South Carolina coast in 1857, 425 people drowned and millions in gold was lost.

Thompson convinced 161 people to invest in finding the ship, raising $12.7 million, and on October first, successfully found his haul.

However, legal troubles soon clouded his joy at the discovery, and 39 insurance companies sued Thompson, claiming that they had insured the gold in 1857 and that it belonged to them. In 1996, Thompson's company did receive 92% of the treasure, with the rest being divided among a few of the insurers.

In 2005, Thompson's investors had not been paid yet, even after Thompson netted $50 million from selling 532 gold bars and thousands of coins. Eleven investors ended up suing, and Thompson went into seclusion in his mansion in Vero Beach, Florida.

It is unclear exactly when Thompson disappeared. On August 13, 2012, he failed to appear at a hearing, and a federal judge found him in contempt and issued a warrant for his arrest. After that, prepaid disposable cellphones, bank wraps for $10,000 bills and a book called "How to Live your Life Invisible" were found in his house.

The marshals service has been putting Thompson's face everywhere, from electronic billboards to a wanted poster on the barges that make new voyages to the sunken ship. The service has also chased down hundreds of tips, none of which have panned out.

Currently, Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration has brought up millions of dollars in gold and silver. Some of the recovered riches will be given to Thompson's original investors.

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