The manager of the doomed ski bar in which 40 people died and 119 suffered severe burns on New Year’s Day was at the centre of a ‘Hot Rabbit’ sex worker case which saw him recruiting prostitutes to a Geneva massage parlour.

The owner Jacques Moretti, 49, is now at the centre of a criminal manslaughter investigation alongside his wife Jessica, 40.

Mr Moretti, it has emerged, was convicted of pimping by a criminal court in Annecy, southern France in 2008 in a case which involved the recruitment of young French women as sex workers for an erotic massage parlour in Geneva called the ‘Hot Rabbit Rendezvous’.

Both he and his wife, Jessica Moretti, 40, face prison for ‘manslaughter by negligence’, and for ‘causing bodily harm and arson’ after partygoers were overcome by flames and toxic smoke when the ceiling was torched by sparklers stuffed into champagne bottles.

Le Parisien has claimed that the bar owner is a known pimp who has also served time in prison in the southeast of France for other cases.

It stated: ‘He is known for pimping cases dating back some twenty years, as well as for a kidnapping and confinement case.’

Quoting its own legal source, RTL, a national radio network, said: ‘The Corsican-born man…was imprisoned in Savoie in 2005, for involvement in cases of pimping, fraud, kidnapping, and false imprisonment.’

The ‘Hot Rabbit’ massage parlour in Geneva’s Rue du Lièvre (which translates as ‘hare’), was raided by Swiss police after a tip-off from their French colleagues in 2008.

Jacques Moretti, 49, who is one of the owners of a Swiss nightclub where dozens of people were killed in a horrific blaze on New Year's Eve, was at the centre of a 'Hot Rabbit' sex worker case which saw him recruiting prostitutes to a Geneva massage parlour
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Jacques Moretti, 49, who is one of the owners of a Swiss nightclub where dozens of people were killed in a horrific blaze on New Year’s Eve, was at the centre of a ‘Hot Rabbit’ sex worker case which saw him recruiting prostitutes to a Geneva massage parlour

Jacques and Jessica Moretti who owned the Swiss ski bar, Le Constellation
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Jacques and Jessica Moretti who owned the Swiss ski bar, Le Constellation


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A photo appears to show the moment champagne sparklers set fire to material on the ceiling of the Swiss nightclub

Moretti, then 32, categorically denied the charges when arrested, admitting only to having managed the massage parlour for three months under the name of a Swiss pimp—which is not illegal under Swiss law.

But for his recruitment activities in France, he was sentenced to 12 months in prison, eight of which were suspended, for inciting prostitution.

According to newspaper L’Est Republican, that meant four months’ imprisonment for offences dating back to 2005.

Moretti was one of a trio identified, along with two other men aged 38, and placed under surveillance. Conversations between the three men, led to their arrest.

The prosecution requested an 18-month prison sentence, with 12 months suspended, for Moretti, but the court was more lenient.

His lawyer, Annick Hingrez, told L’Est Republican she recalled her client as a ‘courteous and affable’ man. Until the horrific news broke about Le Constellation, she thought he still lived in Bonifacio, Corsica.

In court the lawyer described the case against him as weak and claimed it ‘didn’t hold water’.

She highlighted the ‘voluntary participation of the young women recruited’.

Jessica Moretti, 40, (pictured) was inside the bar when the blaze broke out and suffered burns to her arm
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Jessica Moretti, 40, (pictured) was inside the bar when the blaze broke out and suffered burns to her arm

She told the court: ‘According to the conventions between France and Switzerland, acts committed in Switzerland by a French national can only be prosecuted by the French judicial authorities to the extent that they constitute a crime in Switzerland… Which is not the case for either prostitution or pimping.’

Moretti’s sentence included a ban on managing a company in France, but that still left him free to do so in Switzerland, where, according to the Valais cantonal commercial register, he and his French-born wife Jessica also owns two other establishments: Le Senso, a bar-restaurant specializing in hamburgers in the Crans-Montana resort, and the more up-market Le Vieux-Chalet, in the neighbouring village of Lens, which describes itself as a ‘Corsican inn’.

He was questioned by Swiss prosecutors last Friday, along with his wife, who suffered a burned arm in the fire.

Both are currently at liberty, as they assist the judicial authorities with their enquiries, but face trial.

Swiss attorney general Béatrice Pilloud said: ‘Everything suggests that the fire started with incandescent candles placed in champagne bottles, which were brought too close to the ceiling, causing a rapid and widespread conflagration.’

Mr Moretti has claimed that Le Constellation ‘followed all safety regulations,’ despite only being inspected only ‘three times in ten years’ by health and safety officials.

Article 8 of the local fire prevention code states that inspections must take place ‘every year in buildings open to the public or presenting special risks’.