ROME — A multiple manslaughter investigation has been launched into the captain of a superyacht that sank in a violent storm off Sicily, killing British tech magnate Mike Lynch and five other people, his lawyer has told NBC News.
James Cutfield is also being investigated on suspicion of causing a shipwreck, the lawyer, Giovanni Rizzuti, said in a telephone conversation on Monday. He added that Sicilian prosecutors will question Cutfield, 51, again Tuesday.
In a separate interview Tuesday, Rizzuti said that Cutfield was expected to be questioned by prosecutors at around 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) at the hotel where the captain, crew and survivors have been staying following the shipwreck.
Being placed under investigation in Italy does not imply guilt and does not mean formal charges will necessarily follow. Notices to people under investigation need to be sent out before authorities can carry out the autopsies on the bodies of the dead.
It is unclear whether other members of the crew of the $40 million Bayesian or any other people will also be put under investigation along with Cutfield, a New Zealand national.
After the luxury 180-foot vessel went down early last Monday, 15 of the 22 people onboard survived and were rescued from the waters off Porticello, a small fishing port off northern Sicily.
The body of Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian Antiguan national who was the ship’s cook, was recovered shortly after the ship went down.
A massive search effort was then launched for Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, as well as Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International and the British insurance firm Hiscox, and his wife, Judy; and a well-known New York City defense attorney, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife, Neda.
All of their bodies were eventually pulled from the wreck.
The Bayesian was owned by a firm linked to Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who was one of the 15 people rescued after it capsized in what Italian officials called a “violent storm.”
Built by Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi in 2008, the U.K.-registered Bayesian could carry 12 guests and a crew of up to 10, according to online specialist yacht sites. Its nearly 250-foot mast was the tallest aluminum sailing mast in the world, according to CharterWorld Luxury Yacht Charters.
Lynch, who was regularly described in U.K. media as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” was acquitted by a San Francisco jury of fraud charges stemming from the 2011 sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.
The Mediterranean sailing vacation was designed to be a celebration for Lynch, who took along those who appeared in his defense in U.S. court.
Announcing the opening of a manslaughter investigation at a news conference Saturday, prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said the sinking could have been caused by “behaviors that were not in order.”
Claudio Lavanga reported from Rome and Henry Austin from London.
