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Three crew members of the Bayesian superyacht are now 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 sunk amid a severe storm.
The potential charges were set out as rescue workers strive to raise the vessel, currently 50m below the surface, off the coast of Porticello.
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” Captain 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.
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, who drowned, maintains the only way for water to have come into the boat would’ve been through an open hatch.
“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.
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 the British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who he was hosting the group to celebrate his acquittal in a multibillion-dollar fraud trial which 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.
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 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.
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.”
English (US)