Swiss government officials pay tribute to the victims of a fire in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Jan. 3. (Reuters-Yonhap)
GENEVA (AFP) — Swiss prosecutors on Monday said five more current and former local officials were under criminal investigation over the New Year bar fire in the ski resort of Crans-Montana that killed 41 people.
The prosecutor’s office in southwestern Switzerland’s Wallis canton, where the upmarket ski resort is located, declined to provide further details.
However, a source close to the case confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the mayor of the Crans-Montana municipality, Nicolas Feraud, is among those under investigation, as reported by Swiss media.
The source said a former municipal councillor in charge of security, and current or former public safety officials, have also been placed under criminal investigation.
The move widens the scope of the investigation into the inferno in the early hours of Jan. 1 at Le Constellation bar.
Besides those killed — who were mostly teenagers — a further 115 people were injured and 58 remain in hospitals in Switzerland and other countries.
The municipality triggered outrage on Jan. 6 when it revealed that no annual safety check had been carried out at the bar since 2019.
Nine people are now under criminal investigation.
They include the French bar owners, Jacques and Jessica Moretti, who face charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence.
Crans-Montana’s current head of public safety and a former fire safety officer in the town were also already under criminal investigation.
“We are clearly satisfied with the expansion of proceedings,” said Sebastien Fanti, a lawyer representing four victims’ families.
He told AFP that “the question now arises whether Mr. Feraud can continue to lead this municipality.”
Wallis prosecutors are investigating the circumstances of the fire, whether safety regulations were followed and who was responsible.
Prosecutors believe the fire started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to the basement bar’s ceiling, igniting the sound insulation foam.
The current and former municipal officials now under criminal investigation, as well as Jacques Moretti, are to be questioned by prosecutors between April 7 and 15, another source close to the case told AFP.
The bar owners are meanwhile also under suspicion for money laundering, media reports revealed Monday.
The Swiss federal police’s money laundering unit, MROS, sent a report last month to Wallis prosecutors raising concerns over the couple’s business dealings.
The 15-page document was based on reports of suspicious activity submitted by banking intermediaries, Le Temps daily reported.
The main concerns centred on numerous transfers of funds between various companies owned by the couple, with the sums involved in the hundreds of thousands of Swiss francs (dollars).
“This method of operating, by transferring funds between the different business entities owned by the Moretti couple, appears to be a modus operandi reminiscent of transit accounts,” the document stated, cited by the RTS public broadcaster. Such accounts are typically used to obscure the traceability of funds.
Other practices have led investigators to request that judicial authorities examine elements that could constitute offences such as mismanagement, forgery, insurance fraud, or serious tax evasion.
The report mentions “the existence of a suspected criminal financial scheme, comparable to a Ponzi scheme,” media reported.