Guinness scion investigated after Italian boat accident

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/08/guinness-scion-investigated-boat-accident-lake-como

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Edward Guinness, the London-based fund manager and scion of the famous family of brewers, is under investigation in Italy following a boating accident in Lake Como, the vacation spot renowned as a playground for wealthy foreigners.

A prosecutor said Guinness was being investigated for possible charges of involuntary shipwreck and causing injuries after a motorboat he was driving crashed into a rocky wall near the Guinness family residence, Villa Lucertola.

Rescue services were called to help Guinness and nine other tourists at around 3.30am on Sunday after the boat hit the rocks and capsized in an area known as the Devil’s Bridge. The boat sank about 50 metres from its destination. The prosecutor, Pasquale Addesso, said investigators were examining whether alcohol or other substances played a role in the incident.

All 10 people on board the boad managed to swim safely to shore or clung to rocks until help arrived. After swimming to shore, some called police for help from inside the Guinness-owned villa. The other tourists – four men and five women – were between the ages of 36 and 48 and were English and Spanish nationals.

Several victims were taken to hospitals in Como. Although none faced life-threatening injuries, press reports in Italy indicated that some suffered from severe contusions and bone fractures. One of the victims was a Spanish actress, Natalia Azcarate, whose mother had assured fans that she was all right.

Guinness was married to Nancy Cadogan, an artist, in Como in 2006. “The shores of Lake Como had never seen anything like it,” read one description of the wedding in Tatler, the glossy lifestyle magazine. “In true Italian style, the bride arrived at the church an hour late; after the ceremony, boats ferried guests across to Villa Camilla, where they gorged on a dinner sourced from across Italy by caterers Piaceri d’Italia.”

Guinness, a 1998 graduate of Cambridge University, is lead manager of Guinness Atkinson’s alternative energy fund. Previously, he worked as a merger arbitrage analyst at the Tiedemann Investment Group in New York and worked at HSBC for five years after graduating from university, according to the fund manager’s website.

The Guinness Atkinson Fund is run by Edward’s father, Tim Guinness, who is the great-great-great-grandson of Arthur Guinness, founder of the Guinness brewery.

Edward Guinness did not respond to a request for comment.