3,000 Billionaire Clubbers Flee Quarantine On Italian Island

Italian authorities are rushing to track around 3,000 people who attended Billionaire nightclub in Sardinia after many party-goers left false contact details.

The club’s owner, Flavio Briatore, has been admitted to hospital with coronavirus, and 60 employees have tested positive for Covid-19. Now Italian authorities are trying to track down the other attendees of the club’s “dinner events.”

All guests were required to give their name and phone number for such events, however, hundreds left fake numbers Italian newspapers reported. This has hampered efforts to track down potentially infected individuals.

Social media has caused further anger: Instagram videos show the Billionaire events were really just clubbing like the old pre-Covid days. In one, bottle trains are carried through packed crowds with only staff members wearing facemasks. Others show masks worn by one or two guests while the rest dance to loud EDM music.

“I am appalled by the fact that the Billionare has been given false numbers and general information,” Pierpaolo Sileri, the deputy minister of health, told Radio Cusano.

Briatore, who once managed the Renault Formula 1 team and chaired Queens Park Rangers Football Club, denies there was any wrong doing at the club. “At Billionaire we have always respected the rules,” he told La Stampa from Milan’s San Raffaele hospital where he is being treated for coronavirus.

Superyachts Could Spread The Virus Further

The outbreak at Billionaire stems from another on the island of Sardinia on 15 August at Porto Rotondo. Since then the virus has raged throughout this wealthy enclave.

Employees of Sottovento Club in Porto Cervo have tested positive for Covid-19 and its owner, Johnny Micalusi, hospitalised.

On Friday (28 August) 21 employees of Phi Beach also tested positive for Covid-19. Located in Baja Sardinia, Phi Beach is popular among the superyacht crowd who anchor their yachts offshore and are ferried to the club by their crew.

The Porto Cervo Yacht Club, which was due to host the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and the Rolex Swan Cup, has now cancelled all regattas in September.

Italian authorities now worry that these yachts could spread the virus further unless the real names and numbers of Billionaires’ guests are gathered.

Marcello Acciaro, of Sardinia’s virus crisis committee, told the Times, “Those who frequent the Costa Smeralda are accustomed to moving from one place to another, around the world.”

Marine traffic data shows the waters off Sardinia’s north east coast busy with superyachts sailing between Porto Cervo and ports in France and Italy’s mainland.

Briatore Met Berlusconi Before Testing For Covid-19

One billionaire that is known to have been in attendance is the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Two weeks before he tested positive for coronavirus Briatore was videoed with Berlusconi on the Costa Smeralda. In the video neither wears a mask nor practises social distancing.

In Italy, Briatore is known as a coronavirus sceptic and regularly uses Instagram to vent his frustration at the Italian government. In one post he said, “For the last three weeks they have been rattling off a series of numbers that have zero evidence!! Coronavirus is the life insurance for this government . . . Let us work!!”