A federal judge is giving a former deep-sea treasure hunter another chance to reveal information about the location of 500 missing gold coins.
Federal Judge Algenon Marbley on Wednesday directed government prosecutors to draft an order related to the coins involving a Belize-based trust.
The order would permit ex-treasure hunter Tommy Thompson to give written consent for the government to probe the contents of the trust.
A trust representative has refused to allow an inspection of the trust without Thompson's consent.
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 were minted from gold taken from the S.S. Central America, which sank in an 1857 hurricane.
Thompson and his crew found the ship and gold in 1988. Thompson went missing after years of fighting investors and coworkers for the gold. He was arrested in Florida in 2015.