Winter Park couple Marc and Sharon Hagle sued missing OceanGate CEO for fraud

They invested in an earlier version of the Titanic-exploring deep-sea submersible

By Matthew Moyer on Wed, Jun 21, 2023 at 5:56 pm

Screen capture courtesy PBS Newshour/YouTube

Winter Park couple have connection to OceanGate, owners of the deep-sea exploration sub

The CEO of the company behind the missing sub that vanished while searching the wreckage of the Titanic this week has a dubious local connection — he was sued by Winter Park's own Marc and Sharon Hagle.

Richard Stockton Rush is the founder and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions — and, much less fortuitously, one of five passengers on the incommunicado vessel that disappeared over the weekend while heading out to search the ruins of the Titanic. The other passengers on the submersible were French mariner Paul-Henry Nargeolet, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood.

The sub's disappearance has resulted in nationwide fascination and a veritable media frenzy.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, this strange and potentially sad tale even has a local angle. The Hagles — the Winter Park power couple best known for being the first married twosome in space — sued Rush several years ago, alleging that he had misled and duped the couple out of over $200,000.

The money was financing for an earlier — and, in the end, canceled — 2018 iteration of this ill-fated Titanic submersible expedition. The Hagles filed the suit to recoup their investment.

As of this writing, the OceanGate submersible has been missing since Sunday morning. Fears mount as the sub does not have enough oxygen to last through Thursday.

In 2021 you'll be able to visit the Titanic in real life, but it's going to cost you

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