COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A federal judge is warning an ex-treasure hunter that he could face another contempt-of-court charge if he doesn't reveal the location of 500 missing gold coins. 
 
 Ohio Judge Algenon Marbley on Friday ordered Tommy Thompson to cooperate by granting power of attorney to allow the government to figure out if a trust in Belize knows the coins' whereabouts. 
 
 The Columbus Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/2pMTlLB ) that Marbley refused Thompson's request to appoint a civil attorney to help him review records. 
 
 Marbley has held Thompson in contempt of court since December 2015 for violating terms of a plea deal by refusing to respond to questions about the coins' locations. 
 
 The coins, valued up to $4 million, were minted from gold taken from the S.S. Central America, which sank in an 1857 hurricane. 
 
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 Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com 

 After exactly 493 days of refusing to reveal the location of 500 gold coins, former treasure hunter Tommy Thompson was given a choice Friday: Give his permission to examine a trust in Belize, or face a third contempt-of-court charge. 
 
 There's speculation that the coins, valued at between $2.5 million and $4 million, might be held in the trust in the Central American country. The coins were struck from gold bars recovered from the 1857 SS Central America shipwreck. 
 
 Thompson, who turned 65 this month, has been in jail since Dec. 15, 2015 on a civil contempt charge for refusing to reveal the location of the gold to investors who put up at least $12.7 million for the 1988 recovery. 
 
 "Mr. Thompson is ordered to sign a power of attorney that gives the government the power to probe the Belizean trust," U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley ruled Friday. That would give Ira Kane, the receiver in the case, the ability to examine whether the trust holds the whereabouts of the gold coins. 
 
 "I'm directing you to cooperate with the government," Marbley told Thompson, who wore a Delaware County jail jumpsuit and again appeared in court in a wheelchair. Only by doing that could Thompson "purge himself" of the civil contempt that, technically, has no definite end. 
 
 A criminal-contempt charge had not yet been imposed for the time he fled to Florida instead of showing up at a court hearing. 
 
 Marbley has presided over status conferences in Thompson's case practically every six months. He's given Thompson time to go over documents and be examined by doctors, and allowed him to fire and hire lawyers. 
 
 On Friday, Thompson mentioned there was a fortune at stake and he told Marbley that he was "as interested in speeding up this process as much as you." 
 
 Marbley refused Thompson's request to appoint a civil law attorney to help him review records he's already reviewed to jog his memory about the location of the gold. Marbley said his two attorneys, Todd Long and Charles Koenig are well-versed on civil law. 
 
 "What stretches the court's credulity is why do you need a civil attorney to explain your own documents," Marbley said. "The court is not going to be complicit in spurious machinations." 
 
 The debtor's deposition could take five minutes, the judge said. 
 
 "State your name. State your address. Tell me where the gold is." 
 
 erinehart@dispatch.com 
 
 @esrinehart 
 
 Ira Kane receiver
– A federal judge is warning an ex-treasure hunter that he could face another contempt-of-court charge if he doesn't reveal the location of 500 missing gold coins. Ohio Judge Algenon Marbley on Friday ordered Tommy Thompson to cooperate by granting power of attorney to allow the government to figure out if a trust in Belize knows the coins' whereabouts, reports the AP. Marbley refused Thompson's request to appoint a civil attorney to help him review records in order to "jog his memory," about where the gold is, as the Columbus Dispatch puts it. "What stretches the court’s credulity is why do you need a civil attorney to explain your own documents," Marbley said. "The court is not going to be complicit in spurious machinations." Marbley has held the 64-year-old in contempt of court since December 2015—that's 495 days as of this writing—for violating terms of a plea deal by refusing to respond to questions about the coins' locations. The coins, valued up to $4 million, were minted from gold taken from the SS Central America, which sank in an 1857 hurricane. Thompson went on the run in 2012 after investors who funded his search for the wreck of the SS Central America accused him of selling $50 million in gold and keeping the profits for himself. He said the coins were in Belize and agreed to reveal their location in a plea deal months after he was recaptured in 2015, but he later said he'd forgotten whom he'd given them to.