OceanGate co-founder says company didn’t originally set out to build its own sub
(NEW YORK) — The co-founder and former CEO of OceanGate said the company originally never planned to build its own submersibles while testifying during a hearing on the deadly implosion of its Titan sub.
Guillermo Sohnlein co-founded OceanGate in 2009 with Stockton Rush, who was one of the five people killed in a catastrophic implosion while on a deep-sea voyage to see the Titanic wreckage in June 2023. He left the company in 2013, years before OceanGate began conducting dives to the Titanic with the Titan, an experimental, unclassified vessel.
While testifying on Monday during the U.S. Coast Guard’s two-week hearing on the implosion, Sohnlein said when they founded the company, “developing our own subs was not in the original plans.”
He said their vision was to acquire a fleet of deep-diving submersibles that could carry five people up to 6,000 meters that would be available for charter. They didn’t want the subs to require a dedicated mothership or support ship so that they could easily go anywhere in the world and operate off any ship.
He said most active commercial submersibles dive relatively shallow — less than 1,000 meters — limiting how much of the ocean can be explored.
“We wanted to change that,” Sohnlein said. “We wanted to give humanity greater access to the ocean — and specifically the deep ocean, anything deeper than 1,000 meters.”
OceanGate pivots to building own submersible using carbon fiber
Sohnlein said they eventually realized they would need to build their own submersible to achieve that business model.
“If you think about our business requirements of being able to carry five people 6,000 meters without a dedicated mothership deployable anywhere in the world — none of the sub builders could really do that,” he said. “Then, if you did factor in the cost, yeah, it was going to be ridiculously expensive.”
Sohnlein said Rush “convinced ourselves that it’d be possible to build a sub that would meet all of our business requirements.”
Sohnlein said they started looking at carbon fiber as a potential alternative for a pressure hull.
“That’s not a novel idea,” he said. “It wasn’t innovative, it was just something that we started looking at while I was still there.”
Roy Thomas — an engineer with the American Bureau of Shipping, which classifies submersibles — testified during the hearing on Monday that under ABS underwater rules, carbon fiber pressure hulls are “not acceptable materials for submersibles.”
“They have very low resistance to impact loads, and the hull is susceptible to deformation under applied external loading,” he said.
Rush became CEO of OceanGate in 2013, as the company shifted to developing its own submersibles.
“We were transitioning from an operations phase to an engineering phase, and that was really his strength and not mine,” Sohnlein said of Rush. “It made sense for him to take the reins of the company.”
Sohnlein said he made the “difficult decision” to leave the company at that point because there wasn’t going to be much for him to do in terms of operations.
Sohnlein said he still retains approximately 500,000 common shares in OceanGate but has “basically resigned myself to the fact that I’m probably never going to see anything out of that equity stake.”
OceanGate suspended all exploration and commercial operations after the deadly implosion.
OceanGate co-founder never went on Titan
Sohnlein said he was offered “many times” to go on dives on the Titan, though he never did.
“As a shareholder, I didn’t want to take up room in the sub. I wanted to make that available for the people that the dive was intended for,” he said, people for whom seeing the Titanic was their “life dream.”
He also said he just wasn’t interested in going to the Titanic.
“Neither Stockton nor I were ever driven by tourism,” he said. “We were never motivated by going somewhere that people had already been before. The reason we got into this was because we both wanted to explore. We wanted to not only explore ourselves, but create the technologies that would allow us to explore the ocean.”
“So going to see a shipwreck that had already been well-documented, and that a bunch of people had already gone to, that didn’t excite me. It didn’t excite Stockton,” he continued.
Sohnlein reflected on a conversation when Rush told him he did want to conduct the first test dive of Titan down to 4,000 meters solo. He said Rush told him, “I don’t want anybody else in the sub. If anything happens, I want it to only impact me. It’s my design. I believe in it. I trust it. I don’t want to risk anybody else, and I’m going to go by myself.”
In addition to Rush, those killed in the Titan implosion included French explorer Paul Henri Nargeolet, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman.
The hearing into the implosion is scheduled to run through Friday.
In his closing remarks, Sohnlein said he doesn’t know what happened but he hopes they find “valuable lessons learned.”
“This was not supposed to happen,” he said. “This shouldn’t have happened, five people should not have lost their lives.”
He also said he hopes others are inspired by his and Rush’s mission.
“This can’t be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can’t be the end of deep-diving submersibles, and I don’t believe that it will be,” he said. “But I hope that someday, in the near future, we’ll look back on this time as a major turning point in human history — when the global, general public finally took an active interest in all of our efforts, everything that all of us do to explore the deep oceans, to study them and to preserve them.”
(NEW YORK) — A special encore “20/20” airing Friday, July 26, at 9 p.m. ET, which originally aired in 2020, revisits the case of missing Utah mom Susan Powell. The show looks at the continued hunt for Susan’s body and the heartbreaking details surrounding the murders of her two sons at the hands of her husband, Josh, who died by suicide after killing the boys.
Chuck and Judy Cox have spent the past eight years in agony while trying to find some semblance of justice after their son-in-law, Josh Powell, murdered their two young grandsons.
When it finally seemed like they were on the verge of finding some closure earlier this year, the coronavirus pandemic brought everything to a halt.
“I don’t know anything else I could have done and they’re still dead. My daughter’s still missing, and now the children are dead,” said Chuck Cox. “I had them safe… They were in my care.”
His daughter, Josh Powell’s wife Susan Powell, was the mother of Braden and Charlie Powell. She disappeared under suspicious circumstances in 2009 and her body has never been found.
In February 2012, Josh Powell killed himself along with Braden, 5, and Charlie, 7, in a house explosion during a supervised visit. Josh Powell locked out the social worker from the home upon their arrival.
“Why take the kids, why? It makes absolutely no sense,” said Cox.
After the house explosion, Chuck and Judy Cox sued the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) in civil court, alleging that its negligence contributed to the deaths of their grandsons. The lawsuit was thrown out in 2015 but was appealed and revived in 2019 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The fact of the matter is they’re the only ones who could have protected the children at that point,” Cox said of the child welfare agency run by DSHS. “They’re the ones with responsibility.”
The wrongful death civil trial began in February in Tacoma, Washington, but was interrupted in March as COVID-19 swept through the nation.
“We have been robbed of three precious lives and it’s just devastating to think the same person did it,” Denise Cox-Ernest, Susan Powell’s sister, told ABC affiliate KOMO-TV in 2012.
What happened to Susan Powell remains a mystery to this day.
She was reported missing in December 2009 when the family was living in West Valley City, Utah. That night, Josh Powell claimed he had gone on a camping trip in the middle of the night with their sons. Susan Powell, he said, stayed home because she was tired.
“As soon as I heard that he was back and Susan was not with them, I instantly said to myself, ‘What has he done?’” Kiirsi Hellewell, Susan Powell’s friend. “Susan would have never allowed him to ever take the boys out in the winter to the desert, in the middle of the night. Never. I never believed his story at all.”
West Valley City Police Det. Ellis Maxwell, who led the investigation into Susan Powell’s disappearance, said that when investigators arrived at the house, there were no signs of a disturbance or physical altercations.
At the bank in which she’d worked, inside a safe deposit box that belonged to her, investigators discovered a handwritten will and testament. In the will, Susan Powell had written about how bad her marriage had become and that Josh Powell had taken out a $1 million life insurance policy on her.
“If I die,” her note said, “it may not be an accident.”
Police discovered a safety deposit box that contained Susan Powell’s makeshift last will and testament. She wrote about her “extreme marital stress” and a note to her boys: “I would never leave you!”
“That is our biggest piece of evidence,” Maxwell said. “It’s her last words. There was no doubt that this document was authored by Susan.”
Authorities also determined that Josh Powell had filed paperwork to withdraw money from her retirement account about 10 days after she had disappeared.
At the time of her disappearance, Susan Powell’s close friends said her marriage had been in turmoil for years and that she had even seen a divorce lawyer.
“She’d been really happy. He’d been a great husband, and she said that he really changed. He became not affectionate,” said the Cox family attorney, Anne Bremner.
Her friends also said Susan Powell would complain about a lack of intimacy from her husband.
“He kept her at arm’s length. He wouldn’t kiss her anymore. He wouldn’t touch her. He wouldn’t hold her hand,” said Hellewell.
“Josh and Susan’s marriage reaches rock bottom in the summer of 2008. Josh and Susan are constantly fighting. They’re arguing in front of the kids. Josh is exhibiting extreme control over Susan,” said Dave Cawley, the host of “Cold,” an investigative podcast on the case.
Hellewell said Susan Powell would email her a lot, saying she wants “to do everything in my power to save my marriage before I walk away.”
Chuck Cox said that after his daughter’s will was found, he felt “frustrated” that authorities didn’t arrest Josh Powell.
“I felt they had plenty of evidence to arrest him,” Chuck Cox said.
Police publicly declared Josh Powell as a “person of interest” about a week after his wife went missing. However, despite suspicions, Josh Powell was never charged in Susan Powell’s disappearance.
Those close to the family say Josh Powell acted strangely in the wake of his wife’s disappearance. He was observed cleaning his minivan and the garage.
“It was really odd to me because he was running around the house grabbing piles of towels and putting them in the washer And finally, we’re like, you’ve got to go to your interview with the police,” said Jennifer Graves, Josh Powell’s sister.
Friends and close relatives also said that he never participated in search efforts or showed urgency to find his wife.
“There was no point at which Josh ever seemed to even be concerned that Susan was missing,” said Hellewell. “He never participated in any of the massive, massive efforts that myself and relatives and friends launched to put out flyers in malls and parking lots.”
When detectives pushed Josh Powell on the details from the night his wife went missing, he said he could not remember the events leading up to her disappearance.
“I just don’t remember what activity we were doing,” he had told Maxwell.
Investigators also questioned then 4-year-old Charlie the day after his mother disappeared.
Charlie confirmed to investigators that he went “camping” the night his mother vanished, saying “my dad and my mom and my little brother” were also there.
“The children said, ‘Mommy was in the van but didn’t come back with us,’ a pretty significant thing for a 4-year-old to tell a detective,” said Rebecca Morris, who authored a book about the case titled “If I Can’t Have You.”
“My mom stayed at Dinosaur National Park. My mom stayed where the crystals are,” Charlie had also said.
Many people interpreted Charlie’s statement to mean that his mother was dead. However, the toddler also made comments that were clearly false, including taking an airplane to go camping.
“There’s a pile of circumstantial evidence,” said Maxwell. “Is there enough there to arrest him and book him into jail and hold him accountable? Absolutely, there is. Could we? No.”
Maxwell said that the Salt Lake County district attorney refused to file charges without a body until a year had passed.
ABC News reached out to the district attorney at the time, but they declined to respond to this claim and refused to comment on this case.
In January 2010, less than a month after his wife disappeared, Josh Powell said he had sought to get away from media attention and moved with his sons into his father Steven Powell’s house in Puyallup, Washington.
In an effort to get more information for authorities, Graves wore a wire and confronted her brother about his wife’s disappearance.
“Suddenly I just shoved Josh into the bathroom and at that point, I was like, ‘Drop all pretense. Just tell me where her body is,’” said Graves.
He continued to deny knowing anything about Susan Powell’s disappearance and the situation escalated. Steven Powell then kicked Graves out of the house.
“I regret not getting the confession, but I don’t regret going,” said Graves.
“Suddenly, I just shoved Josh into the bathroom,” Jennifer Graves recalled about confronting Powell. “At that point, I was like, ‘Drop all pretense. Just tell me where her body is.’“
In 2010, about a year after investigators first spoke to Charlie on the day after his mother’s disappearance, they sat down with the 5-year-old again and asked him about what he remembers from that night.
“We can’t talk about Susan or camping. I always keep things as secrets,” Charlie said in the interview. “I didn’t want to talk to you on this long, I mean this many minutes. Now I’m done.”
“The only thing we got out of [Charlie] that time was that he said that she went camping, but she didn’t come home with them. Then, he kinda clammed up after that,” said Det. Sgt. Gary Sanders of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.
All the while new details began to emerge about Steven Powell’s unusual fixation and inappropriate behavior toward his daughter-in-law, Susan Powell.
In a 2011 interview with ABC News, he alleged that Susan Powell had made sexual advances toward him.
“She told me that part of the reason they moved to Utah was to get away from her father-in-law, Steven Powell. She was like, ‘He is the most filthy, foul, sick, disgusting pervert the world has ever seen. He’s in love with me,’” said Hellewell.
“Susan was very, very sexual with me. She was very flirtatious,” Steven Powell told ABC News. “We interacted in a lot of sexual ways because Susan enjoys doing that. I enjoy doing that.”
“Why are you telling everyone that? That’s not to your benefit,” Graves said of her father. “But somehow in my dad’s own twisted mind, he thought that that was the greatest strategy to keep the dogs off Josh or something. I don’t know.”
Denise Cox-Ernest said her sister, Susan Powell, had complained about her father-in-law’s inappropriate advances and that she had told Josh Powell about them, too.
“She was extremely upset about that and disturbed, but even more disturbed when Josh just said that, you know, that’s his dad,” said Cox-Ernest.
Shortly after ABC News’ interview, Utah police searched the Powell family home in Puyallup, where Josh Powell and his sons were living at the time. Investigators found home videos taken by Steven Powell that showed secret recordings of his daughter-in-law’s body parts and video diaries in which he smelled her underwear and expressed his love and sexual feelings toward her. The search also yielded dozens of computer disks containing images of women and young girls that focused on their private parts, according to prosecutors.
Police arrested Steven Powell in November 2011 and charged him with voyeurism and possession of child pornography. Josh Powell was named as a “subject” in the child pornography investigation.
Following Steven Powell’s arrest, Josh Powell lost custody of his two sons. Chuck and Judy Cox were awarded temporary custody of the children in which they acted essentially as foster parents — the state had official custody — and Josh Powell was given weekly supervised visitation.
“Because of all the things that the police encountered in the search of the Steven Powell home, it became apparent, eventually, these boys were at imminent risk of harm,” Ted Buck, another attorney for the Cox family.
In February 2012, new evidence emerged that a laptop from Josh Powell’s Utah home contained images of cartoon pornography. A judge then ordered Josh Powell to undergo a psychosexual evaluation and take a polygraph test.
But before Josh Powell could take the evaluation or polygraph test, he killed himself and the two boys. On Feb. 5, 2012, a state caseworker brought the boys to Powell’s home for a supervised visit. He locked the official out, incapacitated the 5- and 7-year-old children with a hatchet, poured gasoline on them and around the house and then caused an explosion, according to authorities.
A few months later, in June 2012, Steven Powell was convicted on the voyeurism charges and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. The trial court had initially dismissed the charge for possession of child pornography in 2012, but the state’s court of appeals reinstated the charge in 2014. He was convicted of possession of child pornography in 2015 and spent another two years in prison.
Steven Powell served a total of seven years in prison before being released in July 2017. He died of heart problems a year later.
Maxwell believes that Josh Powell’s murder-suicide was “definitely an admission of guilt” for Susan Powell’s murder.
“She was going to divorce him. If he can’t have her, nobody will,” he said. “So he essentially kidnaps Susan and most likely murders her and disposes of her body. Where? I have no idea. Nobody knows.”
The Cox family civil case reconvened at the end of July this year. In August, the jury awarded the family a record $98.5 million award against the State Department of Social and Health Services.
Chuck Cox said he is going to use the reward money to honor his late grandchildren.
“I intend to … use the award to try and help other people, [so] that we can save more children,” said Chuck Cox.
The judge presiding over the case has since reduced the reward to $32 million — $16 million for Charlie and $16 million for their other grandson Braden. The Cox family will appeal the court’s decision to reduce the jury’s verdict, their attorney said.
Graves said Susan Powell’s story “will continue to live on and inspire others to move in the right direction. To move towards good relationships and get out of bad situations — abusive situations.”
(NEW YORK) — Caroline Ellison, a key witness in the FTX case, is set to be sentenced on Tuesday for her role in one of the largest financial frauds in history.
Ellison, 29, a former crypto executive, had pleaded guilty to multiple charges in connection with the federal fraud and conspiracy case involving the crypto trading platform. She cooperated with prosecutors and was a key witness during the trial last year of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, her former boyfriend.
Ellison — who was the co-chief executive of Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s companion hedge fund — testified over three days during the trial, telling the court that she committed fraud with her former on-again-off-again boyfriend and at his direction.
Bankman-Fried was ultimately found guilty on all counts for defrauding FTX customers out of $8 billion.
Ahead of her sentencing in New York Tuesday afternoon, Ellison’s attorneys urged Judge Lewis Kaplan to be lenient, arguing Ellison “unflinchingly acknowledged her own wrongdoing, without minimization, blame shifting or self-pity.”
“She time and again proved herself an enormously credible and important cooperating witness” against Bankman-Fried, they added.
Federal prosecutors agreed Ellison provided “extraordinary cooperation that was crucial to the Government’s successful prosecution” of Bankman-Fried.
“Although she did not blow the whistle on any misconduct before FTX’s collapse, she came clean prior to FTX’s declaring bankruptcy to her employees on November 9, 2022,” prosecutor Danielle Sassoon wrote in a letter to the judge. “Ellison approached her cooperation with remarkable candor, remorse, and seriousness.”
Ellison faces 110 years in prison, according to court filings.
Prosecutors declined to make a specific sentencing recommendation. Defense attorneys suggested a sentence in line with a recommendation from probation officials of time served plus three years supervised release.
“Caroline poses no risk of recidivism and presents no threat to public safety. It would therefore promote respect for the law to grant leniency in recognition of Caroline’s early disclosure of the crimes, her unmitigated acceptance of responsibility for them, and—most importantly—her extensive cooperation with the government,” defense attorney Anjan Sahni wrote in a letter to the judge.
Sahni outlined Ellison’s “complex” relationship with Bankman-Fried that began when the two met at Jane Street Capital in 2015 when she was an intern and he was a junior trader. He said their “on-again-off-again, sometimes-secret relationship” had “warped” her moral compass and led her to take actions “that she knew to be wrong, helping him steal billions.”
Bankman-Fried was sentenced in March to 25 years in prison. Judge Kaplan also ordered that he forfeit $11 billion that the government can use to compensate victims.
The former crypto billionaire has filed an appeal to overturn his conviction.
Two former FTX executives who also pleaded guilty in the case — former director of engineering Nishad Singh and co-founder Gary Wang — are set to be sentenced in October and November, respectively.
(NEW YORK) — As students across the United States head back to school, classrooms may begin to feel the effects of laws concerning LGBTQ issues, race and religion that have recently been passed and signed by their local legislators.
What laws are schools facing in your state?
Alabama
Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed a “divisive concepts” bill set to go into effect in October, which prohibits public colleges and universities from promoting, sponsoring or maintaining diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices and programs.
It also bans these institutions from including certain “divisive concepts” on race, gender, sex or religion in the classroom curriculum.
California
In July, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a ban on “forced outings” of trans and non-binary students in schools.
The law was implemented to challenge local school districts that required teachers to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender or changes the name or pronouns other than what aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Florida
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that authorizes unlicensed religious volunteer school chaplains to provide counseling services.
Another law bans “identity politics” or any instruction “that systemic racism, sexism, oppression and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political and economic inequities” from being included in college and university teacher-preparation programs.
Minnesota
In June, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — now a vice presidential nominee for the Democratic ticket — signed a law prohibiting book bans in schools and libraries amid a record-breaking rise in attempts to censor library and school books, materials and resources.
Idaho
Republican Gov. Brad Little signed a law banning any material — books, movies and more — describing or depicting nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sado-masochistic abuse from a school or public library if such material is given or is available to a minor.
He also signed a law banning required statements about DEI in hiring and admissions decisions — or any statement on a candidate’s race, sex, color, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
Little also signed a law that bans public school employees from using a trans student’s preferred pronouns or name without parental permission. Teachers also will be allowed to refuse to use a trans student’s preferred name or pronoun.
Indiana
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed Senate Bill 202, which requires school diversity committees to consider and review “intellectual diversity” — which is defined in the legislation as having “multiple, divergent and varied scholarly perspectives on an extensive range of public policy issues.”
The law would punish faculty — including the potential to revoke tenure or promotion — if they are “unlikely to foster a culture” of intellectual diversity or do not expose students to works “from a variety of political or ideological frameworks that may exist within and are applicable to the faculty member’s academic discipline.”
Iowa
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an anti-diversity, equity and inclusion bill that bans DEI offices, positions related to DEI or any statements in favor of DEI.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion” programs are identified as programs or policies implemented or designed with reference to race, color, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
It also includes restrictions on programs that provide “special benefits” or “differential treatment” of people of different races.
Additionally, the law bans efforts to promote ideas concerning unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, antiracism, racial privilege, sexual privilege, gender theory and others.
Additionally, Reynolds signed a sweeping education law that bans books with any depictions of sex and sexual contact in grades K-12 and bans references to sexual orientation or gender identity in classroom instruction or material from kindergarten to the sixth grade.
Kansas
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly allowed a bill banning colleges and universities from requiring prospective students and faculty to make statements about their views on DEI programs to become law without her signature.
Kelly signed a bill barring health care providers from administering any drug or test or conducting behavioral health treatment without parental consent.
Louisiana
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed a slate of culture wars legislation set to impact students this year. One law bans K-12 teachers from discussing gender or sexual orientation.
He also signed a law that bans teachers from using a trans student’s pronouns or preferred name without parental permission. Teachers are allowed to refuse to use a trans student’s preferred name or pronouns.
Another law bans trans students from using bathrooms that don’t match their sex assigned at birth in schools.
Mississippi
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed a law that bans trans students from using bathrooms that don’t match their sex assigned at birth.
New Hampshire
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed a law barring transgender girls from competing on girls sports teams in grades 5 to 12.
South Carolina
A law signed by Gov. Henry McMaster in May requires public school employees and faculty to notify a student’s parent or legal guardian if they ask to be referred to by a name or pronoun that does not align with their sex assigned at birth or if their gender is not consistent with their sex assigned at birth.
Tennessee
Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill into law barring health care providers from administering any medication, conducting psychological services or counseling services without parental consent — with certain exceptions.
It also bars public school employees from withholding information about the physical, emotional or mental health of a student from their parents.
Another law requires that school employees notify administrators and a student’s parents if a student requests pronouns or a name that does not align with the student’s sex assigned at birth.
Another policy change allows families to abstain from material concerning sexual orientation and gender identity.
Utah
Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed several bills into law that touch on key culture war issues.
One new law requires all schools to remove a book if school officials from at least three school districts or at least two school districts and five charter schools have determined that a book constitutes “objective sensitive material.”
“Objective sensitive material” is defined under the law as an instructional material that constitutes pornographic or indecent material, which is further defined in Utah law as depicting or describing sex or nudity while also lacking “serious value” for minors.
This has led to the banning of books by Judy Blume, Rupi Kaur, Margaret Atwood, Sarah J. Maas and others, in what free speech advocates say is the first statewide book ban.
Another law prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion programs or demographic-based scholarships and initiatives, as well as any program or policy that discusses privilege based on gender or race, social-political power structures, and other topics on race, sex and gender.
Cox additionally signed a law barring transgender students from using restrooms and changing facilities that align with their gender identity.