Stockton Rush was a 'cowboy' who 'cut one too many corners,' says the yacht broker trying to sell an old OceanGate sub

• Stockton Rush "cut one too many corners" in his career, said a man trying to sell one of the late CEO's subs. 
• He added that a colleague predicted Rush would implode on one of his missions. 
• Rush's Titan submersible catastrophically imploded on a trip to the Titanic shipwreck last month. 

An expedition yacht broker who has been trying to sell a submersible owned by OceanGate for the past five years said he developed a relationship with CEO Stockton Rush ever since he was first contacted about the sale and that the late founder "cut too many corners" in his work. 

Rush's now-notorious Titan submersible catastrophically imploded last month on a mission down to the Titanic shipwreck. It was widely reported that Rush failed to properly class his vessel — meaning the vessel wasn't assessed following industry standards.

"It was a terrible tragedy what happened," the broker, Steve Reoch, told Insider. "But it is what everybody in the industry feared — exactly what happened." 

Multiple industry experts have since come forward to say they had warned Rush about the make of his submersible and the fact that it wasn't classed. Those professionals, he said, feared "the worst and it's come about." 

Reoch specifically said he had formed a relationship with Rush in the time that he was trying to make the sale for the late CEO, noting that he was a "fun guy to be with, but cut one too many corners" in his work. 

Referencing the Antipodes — the sub he is currently trying to sell for $795,000 — Reoch said the difference between the two OceanGate-owned vessels is the fact that the Antipodes was classed whereas the Titan was not. 

One of the people who helped to build the Antipodes echoed the fears of others when it came to the Titan sub, Reoch said.

"It's so eerie to me," Reoch said, because the submersible expert who helped to build the Antipodes many times "said his biggest business fear was Stockton [Rush] imploding or exploding and he was right." 

"He said this because [Rush] wasn't building to class," Reoch said.

An open letter written by industry leaders and explorers in 2018 also warned Rush that his decision to forgo the assessment could be catastrophic, according to The New York Times. 

Reoch added that the Antipodes builder recalled Rush as a "cowboy, very smart, and charismatic, but hell-bent on building the submersible his way."