He had to be fleecing the private sponsor of the expedition. Even when he was making the sci-fi youtube circuit during the planning stages of it, particularly with Event Horizon, it seemed so absurd from the start. To pinpoint a location like that and find what you're looking for immediately at the bottom of the sea doesn't otherwise happen and he was absolutely confident in the anticipated result of a hypothesis with no basis. There was one conclusion right from the outset and that's so wildly divorced from how science works.

Hopefully it ruins his career.

I've been on 196 too much. I see "rule" in the title, I instantly think it's supposed to be a meme.