Billionaire victim of Titan sub tragedy leaves wife less than $100k for one unfortunate reason

A victim of the Titan submersible tragedy has left only a small slice of his millions to his wife due to an unfair rule.

The Titan sub imploded while on a visit to the Titanic wreckage in the North Atlantic Ocean in June 2023, instantly killing all five people on board.

The OceanGate vessel was attempting to reach the ocean floor some 12,500 feet below sea level to see the most infamous shipwreck in the world when communications dropped just one hour and 45 minutes into its descent.

After the sub failed to resurface, the US Coast Guard launched a 'frantic marine search' but the debris of the wreckage was sadly discovered four days later and about 500 meters from the Titanic's bow.

Among the five dead was British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, 77-year-old former French navy diver, Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and 61-year-old American businessman Stockton Rush, whose company OceanGate ran the expedition.

Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani-British businessman, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood also died in the tragedy, and now, it has been revealed the 48-year-old's wife has been snubbed from receiving his fortune with less than £100,000 due to a document issue.

Mr Dawood was heir to one of the richest families in Pakistan with a £1.3 billion-a-year business empire and billions of pounds in assets.

The billionaire businessman was the vice chairman of a fertiliser, food and energy company, called Engro Corporation, as well as Dawood Hercules Corporation, which makes chemicals, and was a trustee at the SETI Institute, a non-profit research organisation.

His son had high hopes of working with his father in the Karachi-based family business and was studying business analysis and human resources at Strathclyde University in Glasgow.

Yet Mr Dawood's wife and the mother of his children who lived in the UK with him, Christine Dawood, has only been granted his £76,958 estate ($93,900).

According to newly released probate documents, this is because Mr Dawood died without a valid will, the Daily Star reports.

Mrs Dawood resides in the Surrey mansion the couple shared with their two children, Suleman and their daughter, Alina, who was 17 at the time of the accident.

The will noted Pakistan was Mr Dawood's permanent home so the majority of his fortune has remained outside of the UK.

Speaking on the first anniversary of their death, Mrs Dawood wrote in a post on Facebook: "When people pass, they take a piece of you with them.

"As the one-year anniversary is coming closer, I'm reflecting back on a time that nearly broke me, and yet the love and support I've received was, and still is, so huge that I can't feel anything but being grateful.

"I miss them every day, every hour, every minute, they will never be replaced."

The widow had previously said the possibility of Titan imploding 'never crossed our minds', adding: "To lose a husband is terrible, but when you lose a child."