ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A Winter Park couple who boarded a Blue Origin flight to the edge of space last year would later bring a fraud lawsuit against Stockton Rush, the man currently thought to be lost with four others in the Titanic-hunting “Titan” submersible somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, according to a lawsuit filed in February on behalf of plaintiffs Sharon Hagle and Marc Hagle.
After their 10-minute mission — conducted in March 2022 from Van Horn, Texas, notably New Shepard’s fourth crewed flight — the Hagles said their dreams had come true. Appearing in the News 6 studio to discuss the launch, the couple told us that they had been preparing for such a trip the last 15-odd years.
“We’ve done lots of things that have just been a lot of fun for us, in addition to a terrific training program that Blue Origin initiated,” he said. “...When you’re floating in space and you’re looking at the black darkness of space, compared to the small blue circle that Earth is within space, it has an impact on you personally.”
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According to the couple’s lawsuit against Rush, however, it would appear the two intended to take their derring-do to the ocean floor just as well.
They at least paid for it, the suit claims, stating they each invested no less than $105,129 with OceanGate on Rush’s promises that they would be taken on an expedition to the site of the wrecked RMS Titanic aboard the company’s “Cyclops 2″ submersible vessel.
Concerning the Hagles, Rush began to substantially dig into these claims personally in September 2017, the lawsuit states.
At the time, the Hagles were allegedly having second thoughts about deposits made in November 2016 with OceanGate — reportedly of $10,000 each — on the pretense that the money would be kept in a dedicated client escrow account, one of several things the lawsuit claims was not done. It was promised to the Hagles that those deposits would keep them in the loop to later make a “milestone payment” in October 2017, with the exact payment date to be set 15 days after the first dive of Cyclops 2.
The Hagles contemplated backing out of their contract as the timeline reached September 2017 with no first dive yet performed, to which Rush allegedly traveled to Orange County to urge the couple to remain invested with OceanGate, the lawsuit states. Their meeting on Sept. 27, 2017, reportedly saw Rush expound on the submersible and what could be expected once it was operational, inviting the Hagles on deep-diving tests in the Bahamas and “definitively” stating Cyclops 2 would be ready to dive to the Titanic in June 2018.
To boot, the Hagles received and signed new contracts in January 2018 stipulating — in reliance of Rush’s promises — that they would pay $190,258 to OceanGate in anticipation of that June voyage, the suit claims. The money was wired in February 2018, and Cyclops 2 was renamed “Titan” about a month later, according to the lawsuit.
The June 2018 voyage was canceled and rescheduled to July 2019 due to how “OceanGate had not had sufficient time to conduct the full series of tests and dives needed to certify the Titan to the depth necessary to reach the Titanic,” the suit states.
The July 2019 mission was canceled a month ahead of time because a contracted support vessel “refused to participate” — with OceanGate later including “equipment failure” as a reason for cancellation — and the expedition was eventually pushed to July 2020.
With their investments in OceanGate now set to go unrealized for years, the Hagles demanded full refunds of $105,129 each, at which point an “expedition manager” at the company was tasked in June 2019 with developing a “full refund plan for those who want it.”
The July 2020 mission, too, was canceled, this time via email in October 2019, the lawsuit states.
Around that time, OceanGate reportedly replied to refund requests by “demanding that (the Hagles) participate in a July 2021 Expedition, and stating that if (the Hagles) failed to participate in the 2021 Expedition they would not be entitled to a refund or credit,” the suit states.
Rush, who was the CEO of OceanGate and had full and complete knowledge of the status of the Expedition planning and Cyclops 2 testing and control over OceanGate’s deposit and refund policies, knew or should have known of the falsity of these representations when they were made.
Rush made the false representations to Plaintiff with the express intent that Plaintiffs would (a) rely on the representations, (b) not withdraw from participating in the Expedition, (c) sign the Second Contracts, and (d) accelerate the payment of the full balance of the cost for the Expedition to OceanGate.
(...)
When the Expedition was delayed for multiple years, Plaintiffs requested a refund in accordance with Rush’s representations, but their refund requests were refused.
Plaintiffs were also informed that their monies were not maintained in a separate escrow account.
As a result, Plaintiffs have suffered and incurred damages.
Filing # 166896666 E-Filed 02/15/2023 05:02:00 PM (page 7)
Titan — with Rush said to be on board alongside British businessman Hamish Harding, Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and father-and-son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood — was reported overdue Sunday night, prompting search efforts about 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said Tuesday that search efforts had already covered 10,000 square miles. Though it was reported early Wednesday by the Coast Guard that Canadian aircraft had detected underwater noises during more recent search operations for Titan, the five onboard were thought to have only enough oxygen to last them until Thursday morning.
Read the lawsuit below-
Hagle Lawsuit Doc by Brandon Hogan on Scribd
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