A lawyer representing the builder of the Bayesian superyacht who filed a £186 million lawsuit against Mike Lynch’s widow and crew without permission has been sacked.
Tommaso Bertuccelli, a lawyer who works with The Italian Sea Group (TISG), filed the writ last week declaring liability for the sinking of the yacht lay with Lynch’s widow and the boat’s crew.
However on Monday a source at TISG confirmed the lawsuit had been filed ‘without their knowledge and consent’ and as a result Bertuccelli had been fired.
The source told MailOnline: ‘The first anything we knew about this was when the story emerged in Italian media and it was then picked up by international publications.
‘There is absolutely no truth in the story that TISG has filed a lawsuit. The lawyer in question, who has worked with us for eight years acted completely off his own back.
Angela Bacares and Mike Lynch are pictured above. Ms Bacares survived the sinking of the Bayesian, while her husband and daughter Hannah died
Seven people died following the Bayesian’s sinking on August 19
Mike Lynch (pictured, right) tragically died along with his daughter Hannah (pictured, left)
‘He had been instructed to look into the case legally on behalf of TISG but that is it, for some reason he decided to file case which hadn’t even been seen, agreed and signed by the board. He has now been sacked and is no longer working for us.’
The writ he filed at the court in Sicily has been withdrawn as it doesn’t have the company’s permission.
‘It will not be released as it contains claims that have not been sanctioned by us and the case is still being investigated so it isn’t even possible to file a case.’
Mr Lynch died alongside his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah Lynch; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, American jewelry designer Neda Morvillo; Morgan Stanley International Chair Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy Bloomer; and chef Recaldo Thomas.
Those reportedly named in the lawsuit include the captain James Cutfield and two other crewmembers; Camper & Nicholsons, the company that hired the crew; and Revtom, the company that owned Bayesian and which is controlled by Lynch’s widow Angela Bacares.
The lawsuit claimed TSIG had already lost business due to the sinking, including a well-known fashion house that retracted plans to launch its branding on the company’s yachts.
TISG vehemently denied that it had authorised the lawsuit and said it ordered Bertuccelli to withdraw the claim.
Bertuccelli filed the lawsuit with his firm, BDP Marine & Law, and TSIG is not directly involved.
A source close to the family told the Times: ‘The Italian Sea Group should be ashamed. [IGS CEO] Giovanni Costantino is a disgrace, desperately trying to shift blame. He rushed to the media before all the bodies had even been recovered, showing his lack of decency. Now, it seems, he wants to sue his own clients.’
A handout photo made available on 19 August 2024 by Perini Navi Press Office shows the ‘Bayesian’ sailing boat, in Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Hannah was due to attend Oxford University before her life was tragically cut short
Before his death aged 59, Mike had been embroiled in a transatlantic fraud case, the result of the 2011 sale of his tech group, Autonomy, in which the buyer, HPE, alleged ‘accounting irregularities’ had led to Lynch and his associates fraudulently inflating the price
In a statement ahead of news of his sacking the constructor said: ‘The Italian Sea Group strongly denies the claims published regarding a legal action following the Bayesian tragedy.
‘Although TISG has given a generic mandate to the lawyers named in the article, no legal representative of the company has examined, signed or authorized any writ of summons.’
MailOnline has attempted to contact Mr Bertuccelli at his company based in Viareggio, Italy, several times but he has not responded.
The Bayesian sank last month off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo on the Italian island of Sicily after being hit by a freak storm.
TISG has insisted that the yacht was ‘unsinkable’ and in several interviews with Italian and international media CEO Giovanni Costantino has blamed the tragedy on ‘human error’.
He has claimed doors and portholes were not secured and weather warning were ignored despite being widely publicised.
Mr Costantino also said the fact the yacht took 16 minutes to sink meant there was ample time for the passengers and crew to be saved.
The lawsuit comes less than a month after Italian prosecutors opened up a criminal investigation into the sinking.
‘We are only in the initial phase of the investigation. We can’t exclude any sort of development at present,’ Termini Imerese prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said at the time.
The Bayesian’s captain New Zealander James Cutfield, chief engineer Tim Parker Eaton and Matthew Griffiths, both from Britain, have been placed under official investigation for manslaughter and causing a disaster.
Mr Eaton, 56, has told prosecutors he followed procedures and made sure all was watertight as the storm engulfed the yacht.
According to excerpts from Mr Parker Eaton’s statement, leaked to the Italian media, he insisted all doors and openings on the yacht were shut.
Divers searching the wreck of the yacht last month. Shocking medical findings showed the six victims of the disaster whose bodies were recovered from the yacht had no water in their lungs, suggesting the cause of death was suffocation due to a lack of oxygen
A source for the Lynch family had called TSIG ‘disgraceful’ after the lawsuit was filed.
‘The Italian Sea Group should be ashamed. Giovanni Costantino is a disgrace, desperately trying to shift blame. He rushed to the media before all the bodies had even been recovered, showing his lack of decency. Now, it seems, he wants to sue his own clients,’ an unnamed friend of Lynch told the Sunday Times.
The bodies of the seven dead have since been repatriated from Sicily.
Post-mortem examinations were carried out on the victims in Sicily, with preliminary results suggesting all but one had been trapped below deck when they died.
The autopsies revealed that the victims had no water in their lungs, Italian media reported.
While their bodies have now been returned home, doctors in Palermo are continuing to investigate whether their deaths were caused by drowning or lack of oxygen in the cabin.