Three years before it dispatched a submersible full of affluent passengers on a doomed expedition, OceanGate received $447,000 in government-forgiven loans through the Payment Protection Program. The Washington State-based company had just over $450,000 in pandemic loans forgiven, a database of PPP loan recipients created by ProPublica shows. The loans, which came through lender Washington Trust Bank, were first approved on April 10, 2020. The company had 22 jobs listed at the time, according to the database. OceanGate owns the Titansubmersible, which went missing while descending to explore the wreck of the Titanic at the bottom of the North Atlantic. The company now believes all five passengers are dead. The ill-fated sub’s pilot, Stockton Rush, was OceanGate’s CEO.
