SICILY (NYP) — Three crew members of the Bayesian superyacht are officially under investigation for crimes including negligence, recklessness and failing to save the ship from an oncoming storm, according to Italian prosecutors.
Captain James Cutfield, chief engineer Timothy Parker Eaton and deckhand Matthew Griffiths are in line to face criminal charges, according to the public prosecutor of Termini Imerese in Sicily, close to where the yacht sank amid a severe storm.
The potential charges were set out as rescue workers strive to raise the vessel, currently 50 meters (164 feet) below the surface, off the coast of Porticello.
The doomed Bayesian (ZUMAPRESS.com)
Allegedly, “through negligence consisting of malpractice, recklessness and inexperience,” Griffiths, who was on the night watch at the time, “did not realize … that the boat had taken on water,” according to the prosecutor’s decree, obtained exclusively by The Post.
Griffiths and Eaton allegedly did not “promptly warn” Cutfield or “take measures to deal with the emergency,” while Cutfield did not notify passengers that there was “the danger of impending shipwreck,” according to the decree.
There were 10 crew members and 12 guests onboard the “unsinkable” ship — seven of whom died when it rapidly plunged to the bottom of the sea on the night of August 19, 2024, during a freak storm.
The Bayesian superyacht, which went down neat the coast of Italy, was touted for being unsinkable. (NY Post Composite)
Human error as well as the violent storm contributed to the sinking of the $37 million luxury craft, which took less than 16 minutes, according to authorities.
However, no criminal charges will be formally made until the ship has been raised and its hull investigated, according to police. Manslaughter charges also remain on the table, prosecutors have previously warned.
Mario Belavista, attorney for Recaldo Thomas, the yacht’s cook from Antigua, who drowned, maintains the only way for water to have come into the boat would’ve been through an open hatch.
Recaldo Thomas of Antigua, a cook on the Bayesian, was one of the first to be found dead. (@romy.hunt.9)
“I know that the defense claims they were closed, but there is no [evidence] to confirm that they remained closed as the sea rose,” Belavista told The Post.
Otherwise, he continued, “it’s not clear where the water could have entered from.”
Lawyers for the men under suspicion did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday.
The Bayesian’s captain, James Cutfeld, is named in the Italian court document. (ZUMAPRESS.com)
Among those killed in the wreck were Manhattan lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy, and British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who was hosting the group to celebrate his acquittal in a multibillion-dollar fraud trial that had taken place in San Francisco.
One of the survivors was Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who controls the company that owned the British-flagged vessel.
When the Bayesian, which boasted the world’s tallest aluminum mast, sank, guests “were trapped in the lower rooms, being brought to the bottom with the boat as it sank,” and had almost no time to escape.
One of the diver’s helmets worn by the crew who are working to raise the Bayesian from the sea floor, 50 meters below the surface just off the coast of Porticello, Italy. (Fabrizio Scardovi)
The recovery operation for the Bayesian started on April 30, when a team aided by drones, two barges and a remote-control saw started to detach the 72-meter (236-foot) mast from the ship. The mission is expected to cost some $30 million, which will be bankrolled by the Bayesian’s insurer.
A source at the scene told The Post at least two hard disk drives from the engine room and bridge computers have been recovered from the Bayesian’s hull.
It is unclear if rescuers have yet been able to bring up any of the trove of top-secret documents and confidential data on foreign governments which was said to be held in the ship’s hull in a series of waterproof safes.
Posing with his daughter, Mike Lynch, known as the Bill Gates of England, was celebrating a multibillion-dollar acquittal on board the boat that sank.
The wreck will take at least a month to bring to the surface, after which it is expected to take many more weeks for magistrates from Italy and the UK to fully investigate the Bayesian’s downing and reasons why it sank.
Taking it all in, Belevista said, “We’ll see [about charges]. The expert assessment they’re doing will help us fully understand this.”
By MICHAEL KAPLAN and FABRIZIO SCARDOVI/New York Post
