Dive Brief:
- Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer, a passenger aboard the luxury yacht of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch as it sank off the coast of Sicily on Aug. 19, died of suffocation, an autopsy suggests, according to Reuters.
- Initial results of autopsies performed Wednesday on Bloomer and his wife, Judy, as well as lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda, indicate the four died from a lack of oxygen while trapped on the sunken Bayesian yacht, according to the wire service. Officials have ordered more forensic testing.
- Autopsies on Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, and the yacht’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, were scheduled to be conducted Friday and Saturday, Reuters reported. With the exception of Thomas, the bodies were discovered in the ship’s cabins on the left side of the vessel, where they were likely seeking remaining pockets of air, an official has said.
Dive Insight:
Bloomer, 70, was named a non-executive director for Morgan Stanley International, the Wall Street bank’s London-based subsidiary doing business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in 2016, and later became chairman.
Morgan Stanley executives based in London will choose a new non-executive chair, Fortune reported, citing an unnamed source. Bloomer was also chair of U.K. insurer Hiscox, and that firm has already named Bloomer’s replacement. Earlier in his career, Bloomer was CEO of British insurance behemoth Prudential, and had been a partner at Arthur Andersen for two decades.
The bodies were recovered three days after the ship’s sinking, which occurred in a matter of minutes after a sudden, violent storm hit. Italian authorities are investigating the yacht’s captain, James Cutfield, the ship’s machine engineer, Tim Parker Eaton, and sailor Matthew Griffiths, over possible manslaughter and shipwreck, CNN reported.
Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said Bloomer’s “leadership and experience helped the firm manage a period of complex change for our international businesses,” according to a statement seen by Bloomberg.
