Kit10Phish Explains It All: Yacht Crimes (Feb 2024-Aug 2024)

Feb 2024

Three inmates escaped prison custody on the island of Grenada on Feb. 18. The men, who had all been serving time for a joint robbery, violently hijacked the yacht Simplicity. The sailing yacht was being sailed to Antigua by American owners Ralph Hendry and Kathleen Brandel, who had been living out a long-held dream of cruising the Caribbean when they were kidnapped, according to their yacht club, the Salty Dawg Sailing Association.

The Simplicity was found abandoned in the St. George area, with signs of struggle, and the Virginia couple have been presumed dead, likely thrown overboard. Ron Mitchell, 30, Atiba Stanisclaus, 25, and Trevon Robertson, 23 made their way to the nearby island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where they were recaptured on Feb. 21, police had said.

They were charged with two counts of capital murder “by intentionally causing” the deaths of Ralph Hendry and Kathleen Brandel, the Royal Grenada Police Force announced Thursday. The three suspects were also charged with escaping lawful custody, housebreaking, robbery, and two counts of kidnapping. Stanislaus was separately charged with one count of rape.

April 2024

Example 1: Among the most recent lawsuits filed against Sean Combs is by Diddy's former producer Rodney Jones, who is claiming Diddy introduced him to actor Cuba Gooding Jr. on his yacht and Cuba allegedly started "touching, groping, and fondling" Jones.

Gooding Jr. says he left after the song, tossing an arm on Rodney's shoulder saying something and then walking out ... and, says the whole reason Rodney's making claims about him is because he's going after big money from Diddy.

Cuba adds he and Diddy are more acquaintances than friends. Worth noting ... Cuba says he never met Diddy until 2019 or 2020 -- though a photo of the pair next to each other in 2003's also been dug up in recent weeks. Unclear if Cuba just forgot the meeting or if the photo just happened to capture both of them.

Example 2: A lawsuit from a 25 year old crew member against Sean "Diddy" Combs and his son Christian "King" Combs.

I was going to include excerpts, but decided it might be too detailed and traumatizing (there are detailed descriptions and pictures of resultant bruising) even for a TW. But this is the kind of thing that can happen on yachts:

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/combs-conformed-suit.pdf

Aug 2024

The Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Porticello, a small town on the coast near Sicily's capital Palermo. Seven of the 22 people on board lost their lives in the shipwreck, among them British technology magnate Mike Lynch, known as “Britain’s Bill Gates”, who founded the British software company Autonomy. Lynch had gathered friends and family onboard the Bayesian to celebrate the stunning legal victory.

Legal Woes-

Autonomy sold to HP in 2011 for $11 billion—but HP announced an $8.8 billion writedown the following year after discovering “serious accounting improprieties” that artificially inflated the value of Autonomy, leading to civil and criminal charges filed against Lynch, who has consistently denied wrongdoing.

The U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office launched an investigation into HP’s allegations in 2013, but closed the investigation in 2015 after finding insufficient evidence.

HP won a fraud case against Lynch in the U.K. in 2022 after a judge found that HP had “substantially” argued Autonomy had artificially inflated its value, with the company set to receive damages, though the payment is expected to be less than the $5 billion claimed by HP.
In June 2024, Lynch was cleared on 15 charges including one count of conspiracy and 14 counts of wire fraud, by a San Francisco jury, concluding a three-month trial.
Following his death, US software company Hewlett Packard Enterprise has vowed to pursue a £3 billion claim against Mr Lynch’s family.

His wife, Angela Bacares, is among the 15 survivors. The other five victims are Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch's US lawyers, and his wife, Neda; Jonathan Bloomer, president of Morgan Stanley's London branch, and his wife, Judy; and Recaldo Thomas, the yacht's cook.

At Suffolk coroner’s court on Friday, an inquest opened into the deaths of Mike, 59, and Hannah Lynch, 18, Jonathan Bloomer, 70, the chairman of Morgan Stanley International and insurance company Hiscox, and his wife, Judy, 71, a psychotherapist. "We are only in the initial phase of the investigation. At the moment we cannot rule out any kind of development," Cartosio said.

The head of the Palermo Emergency Medical Services, Dr. Fabio Genco, recalled what the survivors had told him and investigators after the storm. "They told me that it was all dark, that the yacht hoisted itself up and then went down," he shared with NBC News. "All the objects were falling on them. That's why I immediately made sure, by asking them questions, if they had any internal injuries." "They told me that suddenly they found themselves catapulted into the water without even understanding how they had got there," he continued. "The whole thing seems to have lasted from 3 to 5 minutes."

Prosecutors said the event was 'extremely rapid' and the information acquired seemed to indicate a 'downburst', a localized and powerful wind that descends from a thunderstorm and spreads rapidly once it hits the ground.

Initially, Civil Defence officials said they believed the yacht, which had a distinctive 75-meter aluminum mast, had been hit by a tornado on the water, known as a waterspout.

The main issue investigators are focusing on is how a sailing ship deemed 'unsinkable' by its builder, the Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a neighboring sailboat was essentially unharmed.

The Bayesian will be raised and brought to shore as part of the investigation into how it sank within 16 minutes of being hit by the storm. It is lying at a depth of 165ft, around half a mile off the fishing town of Porticello.

Investigators also questioned why the crew almost completely survived, with the exception of the chef, while six passengers were trapped in the hull. The Bayesian’s skipper, 51-year-old New Zealander James Cutfield, is under investigation for multiple manslaughter and causing a deadly shipwreck, along with two British crew members, Tim Parker Eaton, 56, and Matthew Griffiths, 22. Mr Parker Eaton, from Bedfordshire, was in charge of the engine room, and Mr Griffiths, who lives in the south of France with his parents, was reportedly on watch when the yacht was hit by the storm. "For me, it is likely that crimes were committed, that it could be a case of manslaughter, but we will only be able to establish that if you give us time to investigate," he said, explaining that the crew members will be allowed to leave Sicily but may be re-investigated. He went on to say that his team will carefully assess every possible element of liability, including those of the ship's captain, crew, supervisors, the ship's builder and others.

Sources:

https://www.boatinternational.com/luxury-yacht-life/people-parties/biggest-scandals-at-sea--25615

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/prison-escapees-charged-murder-deaths-american-couple-presumed-dead-ya-rcna142414

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/grenada-fugitives-couple-murder-yacht-b2509554.html

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/08/24/italy-opens-murder-and-manslaughter-case-after-superyacht-sinking

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mike-lynch-drowned-sicily-superyacht-102730570.html

https://www.eonline.com/news/1406623/sicily-yacht-tragedy-hannah-lynchs-sister-breaks-silence-on-angel-teens-death

https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2024/08/19/who-is-mike-lynch-tech-entrepreneur-and-daughter-hannah-lynch-missing-after-yacht-sinks-near-sicily/

https://orangecoast.com/feature/should-california-taxpayers-pay-for-a-killers-sex-change

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Thomas_and_Jackie_Hawks

https://www.smh.com.au/national/gino-and-mark-stocco-like-modernday-bushrangers-20151029-gkm9jq.html

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/31/fugitives-gino-and-mark-stocco-each-sentenced-to-40-years-jail