Ohio publisher seeking sanctions in treasure case

COLUMBUS (AP) — A central Ohio publishing company that sued over its lost investment in a deep-sea treasure hunting project wants $1.7 million in sanctions.

The years-long legal mess involves several tons of gold recovered from a shipwreck in the late 1980s by Ohio-based salvagers. Columbus Exploration and Recovery used $12.7 million from investors, including $1 million from the Dispatch Printing Co., which publishes The Columbus Dispatch.

Investors and others who received nothing subsequently sued the company and its leader, Tommy Thompson, who is still a fugitive.

In a filing on Wednesday, the publisher accused one of Thompson’s former attorneys of failing to turn over original inventories of the salvaged treasure. The motion asks for $1.7 million, which the newspaper says it has spent on the litigation.