Jail history of inferno bar owner

THE owner of the Swiss bar in which 40 people died and 119 were injured in a New Year's Day fire spent time in prison for fraud, kidnapping and false imprisonment and was a known pimp, it emerged today.

- BY PETER ALLEN

Frenchman Jacques Moretti, who is in his 60s, faces charges for the inferno at Le Constellation in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on New Year's Day.

His venue became a death trap after sparklers placed inside champagne bottles ignited the basement ceiling.

On Saturday, multiple media outlets in France and Belgium reported that Mr Moretti, who is originally from the Mediterranean island of Corsica, is well known to the French authorities.

In 2005 he was implicated in a kidnap plot in Savoie, the Alpine

'In prison for pimping, fraud and kidnapping'

department of France close to Crans-Montana, and jailed.