UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, and Morgan Stanley International chair Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy are among six people missing after Lynch’s superyacht The Bayesian sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily, with one man confirmed to have died.
Meanwhile Stephen Chamberlain, former VP of finance at Lynch’s former firm Autonomy – cleared of fraud alongside the entrepreneur over the Cambridge firm’s $11.1 billion sale to Hewlett-Packard – has died after he was struck by a car in Cambridgeshire.
There were 22 people on board the 184ft luxury yacht owned by Lynch, 59, when it was reportedly caught up in a waterspout – a tornado formed over water.
Sources say 15 people were rescued, including a one-year-old child and Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares.
Chris Morvillo – a lawyer at British law firm Clifford Chance who had been representing Lynch in his recent fraud trial – and his wife Neda are the other missing persons feared dead.
A spokesperson for Morgan Stanley said people at the company were “deeply shocked and saddened”. They added: “Our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular the Bloomer family, as we all wait for further news from this terrible situation.”
The British-flagged vessel – named after Bayesian Theory, which formed the basis of Lynch’s PhD thesis and the technology of his former company Autonomy – was anchored 700 metres from the port of Porticello in Palermo when it was caught up in bad weather.
Lynch was recently cleared of 15 counts of fraud – and a potential 20 years behind bars apiece – in a San Francisco trial over the 2011 sale of Cambridge firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11.1 billion.
The former UK government adviser – who also sat on the boards of the BBC and the British Library – was accused of inflating sales and misleading regulators as well as HP, which wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8bn soon after the deal went through.
He was extradited to the United States and effectively placed under house arrest while the trial ran its course.
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Chamberlain was cleared of the same charges. His lawyer Gary Lincenberg said he was fatally hit by a car in the village of Stretham while out running on Saturday morning. He had been placed on life support, according to news agency Reuters. Cambridgeshire police said a man in his 50s had been taken to hospital with serious injuries.
After leaving Autonomy, Chamberlain worked as COO for cybersecurity firm Darktrace, which has ties to Lynch. He also volunteered as a finance director for League One football club Cambridge United.
“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity, and we deeply miss him. He fought successfully to clear his good name, which lives on through his wonderful family,” said Lincenberg.
Danny Fortson, US West Coast correspondent for The Sunday Times, told Sky News that Lynch was looking forward to relaxing with his family after his acquittal, which he said was unexpected.
In his first interview following the trial, the father-of-two – who has a lung condition – told the Sunday Times: “I have various medical things that would have made it very difficult to survive.
“I’d had to say goodbye to everything and everyone, because I didn’t know if I’d ever be coming back.
In 2022 a UK high court judge ruled that Lynch had defrauded HP following a six-year civil case. Before the disaster, he had said he intended to appeal the ruling.
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