Mel Fisher.
He was a treasure hunter in the Florida Keys. He hunted for 16 years. When he found bits and pieces of the treasure, his critics called him a fraud and a cheater, accusing him of "salting" the wreck. He was involved in over 100 lawsuits. The worse tragedy: his son got killed.
He eventually found the mother load, the Spanish galleon Atocha. The treasure is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe more.
http://www.melfisher.com