In 2013, Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick Sheeran issued an order that would commence one of the most remarkable and unique state court receiverships in Ohio history. In this landlocked midwestern county, the court and the receiver, Ira Kane, would learn maritime law and the rights of a “salvor in possession,” and embark upon a journey that would result in the recovery of $50 million in treasure that had been settled on the ocean floor for 157 years. But this was only the tail end of a very long story.
In 1857, the steamship S.S. Central America was heading from Panama to New York with three tons of California gold. The treasure included gold bars and $20 gold double eagle coins that were newly minted and had never circulated. The New York banks were eagerly awaiting this influx of hard capital while trying to weather the Panic of 1857. But the ship sank in a hurricane off the coast of North Carolina, taking with it the lives of over 450 passengers and crew. Its sinking aggravated the financial panic and was America’s worst civilian maritime disaster, until the Titanic sank fifty-five years later.
The location of the shipwreck remained a mystery until 1988, when it was found by Columbus scientist Tommy Thompson and his crew. To fund operations, Thompson had raised $12 million from Central Ohio investors who were some of the most storied names in the community, including Wolfe and McConnell. They would later invest another $10 million.
Thompson recovered $100 million in treasure. But almost as soon as the first gold ingot broke the water surface, litigation began that would continue on and off for a quarter century. It was discovered later that because of the litigation, Thompson deliberately left much of the treasure on the sea floor and concealed this act from the investors.
In the 25 years from when the treasure was found to when Ira Kane was appointed Receiver, the investors received nothing. Zero. By 2013, Thompson had become a bizarre eccentric fearing sub-atomic particles in his clothes and was a fugitive being hunted by U.S. Marshalls.
Quintin Lindsmith was Chief Counsel for Mr. Kane. He will tell the story of how Ira Kane battled through litigation in seven courts in five states and worked through 350 motions and creditor applications, fended off $6 million in meritless creditor claims from people sucked out of the woodwork by the lure of gold, recovered over $1 million from directors who were to have overseen Thompson, secured $100,000 from a Florida attorney who set up an offshore trust for Thompson, secured a 100% salvage award from the Virginia federal court which had in rem jurisdiction over the treasure after a Virginia marshal had “arrested” a lump of coal, and secured a $16.5 million verdict against Thompson after a three-week jury trial.
Extraordinary for any receivership, in 2019, Mr. Kane paid all creditors 100 cents on the dollar and had many millions left for distribution to the investors, who had still received nothing. As many as a third of the investors had died since their first dollars had been deposited 35 years earlier. But Mr. Lindsmith will also share the bitter result of these immense efforts, with him and Mr. Kane required to helplessly watch as much of what should have gone to the investors or their heirs was diverted as a result of a legal maneuver forced on the receiver at the very end.
This rollicking story features a lost shrimp boat, a disbarred Harvard-educated lawyer, the Columbian presidential palace, the “Georgia Air Force,” Dennis Rodman, and the Cook Islands. This story includes a Thompson minion handing off $2.5 million worth of gold coins to a total stranger, Thompson keeping stacks of coins and gold bars in plastic trays on the sea floor as a “security measure,” Thompson playing with buckets of 19th century coins in a basement in German Village, Thompson blowing through $73 million in investor funds and loans for no return, and Thompson decaying for over nine years in a Michigan federal prison for refusing to reveal where certain gold coins are.
And all of the swashbuckling blended with what could be an entire law school curriculum of legal issues, including maritime law, corporate governance, director fiduciary duties, partner rights, debtor-creditor law, state receivership law, bankruptcy law, contract law, litigation, trial practice, intellectual property, Ohio trust law, lawyer ethics, contempt law, fugitive law, and criminal law.
Mr. Lindsmith will not only tell the story, but will also bring with him recovered artifacts, including Panama-to-New York brass luggage tags, a gold nugget hat pin, and steerage passenger tickets.
PRESENTER
Quintin Lindsmith, Esq.
Quintin Lindsmith serves as General Counsel for Bricker Graydon. He is the chief legal officer and loss prevention attorney of the firm. He oversees the various legal needs of the firm, including ethical compliance, conflict reviews, client engagement terms, vendor contracts, insurance contracts, employment matters, IT security, claims, litigation, subsidiary corporate governance, loss prevention, client audits, audit letters, and opinion letters.
Prior to becoming General Counsel in 2023, Quintin was a partner in Bricker Graydon’s Litigation Group and was past chair of that group. He had a national litigation practice and represented clients in complex commercial litigation matters, including insurance industry litigation, insurance product litigation, class action defense, bankruptcy litigation, estates and trusts litigation, health care litigation, employment discrimination, banking, and election law litigation.
The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, J.D. (1984)
The Ohio State University, B.A., cum laude (1981); Phi Kappa Phi
2.0 CLE Credit Hours including .50 Professional Conduct