Titan sub disaster victim Shahzada Dawood died without a valid UK will so left less than £100,000 to his wife in Britain – despite being the heir to a £1.3billion-a-year business empire in Pakistan, can reveal today.
Mr Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman were two of the five victims killed instantly when the OceanGate submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic.
Mr Dawood was the heir to the great Dawood business dynasty. His personal net worth was estimated at around £285million. But his Karachi-based family business has a turnover of £1.3billion-a-year and billions of pounds in assets.
His family is among the richest in Pakistan, but have strong links to the UK. Shahzada lived in a Surrey mansion with his life coach wife Christine and their two children.
He was the vice chairman of Engro Corporation, which makes fertilisers, food and energy, as well as the Dawood Hercules Corporation, which makes chemicals.
But as Shahzada died without a valid will a Grant of Letters of Administration was issued to the administrator of the estate, usually the lawful spouse or nearest blood relative.
Mr Dawood’s £76,958 UK estate was issued to his wife, Christine, who continues to live in their Surrey home.
The will further notes that he was domiciled in Pakistan – with the majority of his fortune appearing to remain outside of the UK.
As well as the father and son, three others died on board Titan: OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush, 61, British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77, a former French navy diver and experienced Titanic diver.
The wreckage of the doomed vessel was found 330 yards away from the bow of the Titanic, some 3,700 meters below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.
Ms Dawood and her daughter Alina, who was then 17, waited on the support ship while the search continued, before receiving the heartbreaking news.
Speaking to The Mail last year, she said: ‘The moment we knew they’d found debris and there were no survivors, Alina and I went on deck. Until that moment we’d had hope. We took some cushions with us and just sat there looking out at the ocean. We were both crying.
‘I turned to her and said: ‘I’m a widow now.’ She said: ‘Yes, and I’m a single child.’ Then we cried even more.’
She added: ‘No parent should have to grieve for their child. It’s unnatural. All of a sudden your purpose, your identity, is ripped away from you.’
Billionaire Shahzada was a trustee at the SETI Institute a non-profit research organisation and had also worked with the Prince’s Trust.
Suleman had taken his Rubik’s Cube on the trip as he hoped to break the world record for solving the puzzle at the greatest depth – which he could do in as little as 12 seconds.
He was at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, studying business analysis and human resources and intending to work with his father in the family business, when they boarded the Polar Prince to visit the wreck of the Titanic in the Titan submersible.
Mrs Dawood had planned to go with her husband to view the Titanic wreck in the OceanGate sub, but that their trip was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.
Suleman had become obsessed with the Titanic after completing a 10,000 piece Lego model as a teenager, and she stepped back to let him go in her place.
Ms Dawood met her husband at Reutlingen University in her native Germany, where she said that they were ‘kindred spirits’.
‘We don’t have graves for them,’ she continued. ‘There were no bodies, but recently we [she, Alina and Shahzada’s younger sister, Sabrina] went to Singapore. The sea was warm enough for us to walk in and I truly felt them around me. I thought: ‘This is such a gift. I don’t need a grave because every time I am in the ocean I will be able to connect with them because they are part of it.’
‘We stood there with our skirts draped over our arms and cried for ten minutes straight. It was very, very cathartic. When I think of them now, they are just asleep down there [in the ocean].’
Disaster struck on June 18 last year when the 21-foot vessel lost contact with it’s mothership after diving down to the wreck of the Titanic, off the Newfoundland coast.
When the submersible was reported missing, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Officials later announced they believed the Titan had imploded as it went to a depth of 12,500 ft and a debris field was discovered.
Four months after the tragedy, in October, coastguard officials revealed they had recovered human remains from the scene and these were taken away for analysis.
In December 2023, Christine posted another tribute to her husband and son. Alongside an image of herself in the sea.
She said: ‘Every time I touch the ocean, I feel them, because they are part of it now.
‘When the waves caress my skin, it’s like their whispers of love around me. Six months on and I still can’t believe it.
‘I might look forlorn, my heart is not. I feel gratitude to the people around me, who walk beside me who catch me when I stumble and who make me laugh even when I feel like crying.
‘It’s been the most challenging year I’ve ever known, and yet I’m still standing.
‘Seeing with me eyes closed. Feeling with me heart bleeding moving with my root deepening, flying with my tattered wings, listening with wind in my hair, so that one day I will be able to love again with all I am.’
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