A video on the legal aspects of the case:
(Summary: Oceangate probably wasn't open enough about the risks, and will get the bejeebers sued out of them, but probably also don't have much money or insurance backing anyway.)
David Lochridge, the guy that was fired, was originally the proposed pilot, per this article, and when he was fired, the finance director was asked to take over that job. And "engineers" were young and underpaid, too.
And, the operation was intentionally set up to avoid US oversight, although I'm not sure that would have had any effect on the actual design and operation of the submersible itself:
A couple of questions I've had:
-I've seen it mentioned a couple of times about them "dropping the skids" but can't imagine why those would be droppable, as it seems they needed those on to recover the sub on its sled at the end of the dive.
-I've seen it mentioned multiple places about the 17-bolts that held the entrance on. I remember reading one source that said the manway in was a tight squeeze and that a "large person" couldn't physically enter the sub. Yet, I've seen other pictures that seem to indicate the whole front dome unbolted with those 17 bolts, and not sure which is correct there. I've also seen a number of video clips of some other submersible where the clip used clearly wasn't the subject of the discussion, and this may be the issue on this point.