Lastminute executives arrested for alleged misuse of Covid funds

SENIOR executives at travel booking site Lastminute.com have been arrested in Switzerland over accusations of misusing public Covid recovery funds.

The company – which was founded by Baroness Lane-fox as part of the British dotcom boom in the early 2000s – has appointed chief customer officer Laura Amoretti as interim chief executive following the arrests of five former and current executives in the Swiss canton of Ticino over the weekend.

The company told investors that police were looking into “a possible situation of abuse in connection with claims and withdrawals of Covid-19 related short-time work allowances” by its three Swiss subsidiaries.

Those arrested include chief executive Fabio Cannavale and chief operating officer Andrea Bertoli, the company confirmed yesterday, along with three other current and former executives. Both Mr Cannavale and Mr Bertoli have been suspended from their posts.

Four of the five have been remanded in Swiss police custody for seven weeks, the Financial Times reported, while prosecutors have frozen Sfr7m (£6m) in the company’s bank accounts.

Lastminute’s Swiss subsidiaries had received Sfr28.5m in state subsidies between March 2020 and February 2022, it told investors.

Last week, before the arrests, Lastminute said: “The company is confident of no wrongdoing concerning the matters which are subject of investigation and will support the public prosecutor’s office in its investigation.”

Lastminute.com, which is a Dutch company listed on the Swiss stock exchange, has crashed by a third since the police investigation came to light.

Lady Lane-fox, its founder, no longer has any involvement in the company.