Sicily Yacht Sinking: Morgan Stanley International Bank Chairman Jonathan Bloomer Among Missing

Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer are among six who are still unaccounted for after their mega-yacht sunk off the Italian coast on Monday morning.

The accident happened when the 184-foot sailboat called Bayesian flipped over near the port of Porticello following a tornado attack, said the Sicily civil protection chief Salvatore Cocina.

Several newspapers associated with the British media including Daily Mail have also claimed that Bloomer’s wife has also gone missing.

Other missing persons include British tech magnate Mike Lynch, 59, and Hannah his 18-year-old daughter.

Lynch is famous for his recent trial in California, in which he was accused of fraud in the selling of his software company, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard, but Lynch was acquitted.

The Italian agency further said that Chris Morvillo, a lawyer of a British-based Clifford Chance law firm is also among those missing.

Earlier this year, Morvillo defended Lynch in a highly-publicized case; Morvillo is a former Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The sinking of the yacht has led to one confirmed fatality; the boat’s chef, Canadian-born Thomas Recaldo, whose corpse was retrieved by the Italian authorities.

The Bayesian, which was constructed by the Italian yacht builder Perini in 2008 and underwent a stylish refit in 2020, was sailing with 22 persons onboard among 10 crew members and 12 passengers.

Fortunately, they were able to get out fifteen people from the yacht including the wife of Lynch, Angela Bacares, the owner of the ship, and a one-year-old child.

In the rescue operation, eight of the people were admitted to nearby hospitals for medical attention, stated the authorities.

One of the survivors was 36-year-old Charlotte Golunski with her 1-year-old daughter Sophia; She held her baby afloat in the water as the water rushed in.

Domenico Cipolla an official at the Di Cristina hospital in Palermo said that both the mother and daughter are recovering and only the mother has minor injuries.

As the rescue operation continues, Italian coast guard divers have been taken to the scene, which is 160 feet below the surface.

The authorities suggest that some of the passengers could have still been locked in their cabins when the yacht sank, as reported by the BBC.

The incident happened not long after Lynch’s legal win in San Francisco, which was the purpose of planning the disastrous trip.

Lynch’s co-defendant in the case, Stephen Chamberlain, was knocked down by a car in Cambridgeshire, UK on the same day as the yacht catastrophe and later died from his injuries.

According to the captain of a boat which was anchored nearby, he started his engine in an effort to maneuver his boat and prevent it from colliding with the Bayesian when the storm struck.

“We managed to keep the ship in position, and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone,” said Karsten Borner.

The Bayesian is operated by Revtom Limited while Bacares is the sole stakeholder of the company.