The apparent success of the leasing deal could explain how Rush was able to attract what was the largest investment ever made by OceanGate in 2020, at a time when the company was working on the expensive task of replacing the TitanThe first helmet to crack during testing. The $18 million in capital funding allowed OceanGate to rebuild the Titan and go ahead with your first Titanic expedition in 2021. Around this time, documents indicate that OceanGate may have had more control in the property acquired from Cyclops 2 LLC.
But by 2023, OceanGate appeared to be in a much more unstable financial situation. Several witnesses at the Coast Guard hearings testified about what they perceived as OceanGate’s financial difficulties in the lead-up to the finals. Titanic expedition, including Rush giving up his salary and occasionally lending the company money from his personal funds.
Demand for $250,000 Titanic dives seemed to be decreasing. In May 2023, one of the OceanGate projects affiliate marketers announced that there were still “some very limited dates and places available at 40 percent off” for that summer’s expeditions. This has not been previously reported.
If the federal investigation results in criminal charges, they would proceed alongside a civil lawsuit currently in federal court in Washington state. In that case, the family of the famous Titanic The explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet is looking for 50 million dollars for his death aboard the Titanand the lawsuit names as defendants OceanGate, the Rush estate, and a host of other people and companies connected to the ill-fated submersible. Rush’s estate recently filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against him, stating: “As Rush’s employer, OceanGate is liable for Rush’s alleged negligence.”
Maritime attorney Alton Hall is skeptical that Nargeolet’s family will recover anything close to the $50 million they are seeking. A 1920 law, the Death on the High Seas Act, generally limits damages to pecuniary losses, such as future profits. An exception would be if Nargeolet and his companions Titan The passengers, whom OceanGate called “mission specialists,” qualified as sailors under another law called the Jones Act. “There are literally books and books written about who is and isn’t a Jones Act sailor,” Hall says. The passengers who died aboard the Titan “They are not Jones Act sailors,” he believes.
An unknown question in these cases, and in other cases that could be presented by the families of the two billionaires who also died in the Titan—is who could face legal consequences. The civil case against OceanGate and the Rush estate also names as defendants OceanGate’s original director of engineering, Tony Nissen, and three companies that manufactured the TitanThe hull and viewing window. However, several witnesses at the Coast Guard hearings testified that Stockton Rush had the final say in many business, engineering and operational decisions, and that his company is likely virtually bankrupt. In the end, there may be little left to salvage from the wreckage of OceanGate.