British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch missing after yacht sinks
Lynch was acquitted in June by a jury in San Francisco after a long fraud trial
19 August 2024 - 16:37
byRosaura Bonfardino and Igor Petyx
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Mike Lynch leaves the high court in London, Britain, March 25 2019. Picture: REUTERS/HENRY NICHOLLS
Palermo — British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is among several people missing after a luxury yacht sank during an unexpectedly violent storm off the Sicilian capital Palermo early on Monday.
One person died and several are missing.
The 56m sailboat was identified as the British-registered Bayesian and sank with 22 people on board shortly before sunrise, the Italian coast guard said in a statement.
The names of the dead person and the missing were not immediately released, but a person familiar with the rescue operation confirmed that Lynch was not accounted for. The Italian coast guard said the missing had British, American and Canadian nationality.
The 15 people rescued included a one-year-old child. Eight people were transferred to local hospitals. All were in stable condition, local media reported.
“The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected, but not of this magnitude,” a coast guard official in Palermo said.
Lynch, 59, is known as Britain’s Bill Gates and is one of the country’s best-known tech entrepreneurs.
He was acquitted in June by a jury in San Francisco, the US, of fraud charges linked to the sale of his software company, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $11bn in 2011.
He said at the time that he was “elated” to be cleared in the criminal trial in which he denied any wrongdoing and blamed HP for botching the integration of the two companies.
Storms and heavy rainfall have swept Italy in recent days bringing floods and landslides that have caused major damage in the north after weeks of scorching heat.
The captain of a nearby boat said that when the storm hit he had turned the engine on to keep control of the vessel and avoid a collision with the Bayesian.
“We managed to keep the ship in position and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone,” Karsten Borner told journalists.
The other boat “went flat on the water, and then down,” he said.
He said his crew then found some of the survivors on a life raft — including three who were seriously injured, the baby girl and her mother — and took them on board before the coast guard picked them up.
The coast guard said divers were inspecting the wreck, at a depth of 49m.
Prosecutors in the nearby town of Termini Imerese have opened an investigation to look into what had gone wrong.
The Bayesian was built by Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008 and was last refitted in 2020, and was managed by yachting company Camper & Nicholsons.
It won a string of awards for its design and can accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites and a crew of 10, according to online specialist yacht sites.
It was not immediately clear who owned the boat, however, the yacht’s name would resonate with Lynch because his Ph.D. thesis and the software that made his fortune was based on Bayesian theory.
The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on August 14 and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, with a navigation status of “at anchor”, according to vessel tracking app Vesselfinder.
A UK foreign ministry spokesperson said British officials were in contact with local authorities over the incident.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch missing after yacht sinks
Lynch was acquitted in June by a jury in San Francisco after a long fraud trial
Palermo — British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is among several people missing after a luxury yacht sank during an unexpectedly violent storm off the Sicilian capital Palermo early on Monday.
One person died and several are missing.
The 56m sailboat was identified as the British-registered Bayesian and sank with 22 people on board shortly before sunrise, the Italian coast guard said in a statement.
The names of the dead person and the missing were not immediately released, but a person familiar with the rescue operation confirmed that Lynch was not accounted for. The Italian coast guard said the missing had British, American and Canadian nationality.
The 15 people rescued included a one-year-old child. Eight people were transferred to local hospitals. All were in stable condition, local media reported.
“The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected, but not of this magnitude,” a coast guard official in Palermo said.
Lynch, 59, is known as Britain’s Bill Gates and is one of the country’s best-known tech entrepreneurs.
He was acquitted in June by a jury in San Francisco, the US, of fraud charges linked to the sale of his software company, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $11bn in 2011.
He said at the time that he was “elated” to be cleared in the criminal trial in which he denied any wrongdoing and blamed HP for botching the integration of the two companies.
Storms and heavy rainfall have swept Italy in recent days bringing floods and landslides that have caused major damage in the north after weeks of scorching heat.
The captain of a nearby boat said that when the storm hit he had turned the engine on to keep control of the vessel and avoid a collision with the Bayesian.
“We managed to keep the ship in position and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone,” Karsten Borner told journalists.
The other boat “went flat on the water, and then down,” he said.
He said his crew then found some of the survivors on a life raft — including three who were seriously injured, the baby girl and her mother — and took them on board before the coast guard picked them up.
The coast guard said divers were inspecting the wreck, at a depth of 49m.
Prosecutors in the nearby town of Termini Imerese have opened an investigation to look into what had gone wrong.
The Bayesian was built by Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008 and was last refitted in 2020, and was managed by yachting company Camper & Nicholsons.
It won a string of awards for its design and can accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites and a crew of 10, according to online specialist yacht sites.
It was not immediately clear who owned the boat, however, the yacht’s name would resonate with Lynch because his Ph.D. thesis and the software that made his fortune was based on Bayesian theory.
The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on August 14 and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, with a navigation status of “at anchor”, according to vessel tracking app Vesselfinder.
A UK foreign ministry spokesperson said British officials were in contact with local authorities over the incident.
Reuters
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