A lawyer working with the builder of the Bayesian superyacht that carried Mike Lynch and six other passengers to their deaths has filed a €222 million (£186 million) lawsuit against Lynch’s widow and crewmembers of the ship, citing reputational damage.
Tommaso Bertuccelli, a lawyer who works with The Italian Sea Group (TISG), filed a lawsuit in Palermo on Friday declaring liability for the sinking of the yacht lay with Lynch’s widow and the boat’s crew, Italian publication La Nazione first reported. TISG itself, however, subsequently distanced itself from the legal action, saying it had not authorized the suit and had told Bertuccelli to withdraw it.
The Bayesian superyacht, built by TISG, sank off the coast of Sicily after running into storms while Lynch was celebrating his recent acquittal on criminal fraud charges in the U.S. in June.
Lynch was killed 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 the Bayesian and which is controlled by Lynch’s widow Angela Bacares.
The lawsuit claims TISG has 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 has vehemently denied that it had authorized the lawsuit and says it has ordered Bertuccelli to withdraw the claim. Bertuccelli filed the lawsuit with his firm, BDP Marine & Law, and TISG is not directly involved.
“The Italian Sea Group … strongly denies the claims published in La Nazione regarding a legal action following the Bayesian tragedy,” a spokesperson told several outlets. “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.”
A representative for TISG told Fortune the company doesn't intend to pursue crewmembers or Lynch's widow for damages.
BPD Marine & Law didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bayesian builder in damage control
TISG’s CEO, Giovanni Costantino, has been in damage control mode since the yacht sank last month.
Costantino called the Bayesian “unsinkable” and claimed the yacht couldn’t have gone down without human error, adding the alleged 16 minutes it took for the boat to sink should have offered adequate time to save all the passengers.
“The first thought when I read the news of the sinking was that there was a problem related to the management of the boat or the fact that the hull may have hit a rock,” Costantino told the Guardian.
“But when the passengers declared they had not heard a loud noise onboard, which would have meant that the yacht had struck a reef, I realized the yacht had taken on water due to a hatch that was left open. Otherwise the Bayesian cannot sink.”
Italian authorities are investigating Cutfield, the New Zealand-citizen captain of the Bayesian, for manslaughter and negligent shipwreck charges, his lawyers confirmed in August.
A source for the Lynch family called TISG “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 Times.
TISG collected €364 million (£305 million) in revenue last year and made €62 million (£51.8 million) in profit.
Reports of a fresh lawsuit add to the stresses of Lynch’s grieving widow Bacares, the legal owner of the Bayesian, who is left to come to terms with the deaths of her husband and daughter while readying herself for a separate legal battle.
Weeks after Lynch’s death, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) confirmed it intended to see out its successful civil suit against the late tech mogul later this year.
A judge is set to confirm the damages owed to HPE after he concluded the group had largely proved that Lynch and other execs at his former group Autonomy were likely aware of fraudulent accounting practices before a $11.7 billion acquisition in 2011. The tech group is seeking up to $4 billion in damages.
Editor's Note: TISG has strongly denied its involvement in a lawsuit against parties involved with the Bayesian superyacht in an email to Fortune.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com