LONDON — A superyacht that sank Monday off the Sicilian coast during a storm left six passengers missing, including British tech kingpin Mike Lynch and some of his inner circle, who were gathered to celebrate his victory in a long-running legal trial.
Lynch was acquitted in June in a U.S. fraud case and was apparently aboard the Bayesian with some of the people who stood by him throughout the ordeal. Another member of Lynch’s legal team who wasn’t aboard, Reid Weingarten, said the outing was intended in part as a celebration of the acquittal.
Here’s a look at the people who remain missing following the disaster, and also details of the death of an associate of Lynch in recent days who was not on the yacht.
Software entrepreneur Mike Lynch, along with his daughter, Hannah, are among those that police divers are searching for after the yacht was struck by a waterspout off of Porticello, near Palermo.
Lynch had been trying to move past a Silicon Valley debacle that had tarnished his legacy as an icon of British ingenuity.
A Cambridge-educated mathematician, Lynch made his mark with Autonomy, which made a search engine that could pore through emails and other internal business documents to help companies find vital information more quickly. Autonomy’s steady growth in its first decade resulted in Lynch being dubbed Britain’s Bill Gates and earning him one of the U.K’s highest honors, the Office of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2006.
Lynch, 59, sold Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. But the deal quickly turned sour after he was accused of cooking the books to make the sale.
The fraud allegations resulting in Lynch being fired by HP’s then-CEO Meg Whitman and a decade-long legal battle. It culminated with him being extradited from the U.K. to face criminal charges of masterminding a multibillion-dollar fraud.
Lynch steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, asserting that he was being made a scapegoat for HP’s own bungling — a position he maintained while testifying before a jury during a 2 1/2 month trial in San Francisco earlier this year. U.S. Justice Department prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses in an attempt to prove their allegations against Lynch.
Lynch was vindicated at trial in June after being cleared of all charges. Lynch pledged to return to the U.K. and explore new ways to innovate.
Although he avoided a possible prison sentence, Lynch still faced a potentially huge bill stemming from a civil cased in London that HP mostly won in 2022. Damages haven’t been determined in that case, but HP is seeking $4 billion. Lynch made more than $800 million from the Autonomy sale.
Lynch later went on to set up technology investment firm Invoke Capital.
One of Lynch’s U.S. lawyers, Christopher Morvillo of the firm Clifford Chance, and his wife Neda were also on the yacht and are among those unaccounted for.
Morvillo is regarded as an elite defense attorney specializing in fraud and corruption cases. He was previously a federal prosecutor in New York who worked on the criminal investigation of the Sept. 11, 2002 terrorist attacks. His father, Robert Morvillo, was also a lawyer who represented high-profile clients, including Martha Stewart.
In a LinkedIn post soon after Lynch’s acquittal, Morvillo paid tribute to the team of lawyers who worked on the case and also his wife and two daughters.
“None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home,” he wrote. The post ended with the words: “And they all lived happily ever after….”
In a legal podcast released last week, Morvillo recounted his involvement with Lynch’s case, starting from when his firm was hired in November 2012.
He flew to London to meet Lynch on Thanksgiving weekend that year and assumed he would be gone for a week, Morvillo told the For the Defense podcast. Instead, Morvillo said he “spent a significant portion of the rest of my life bouncing back and forth between London and New York.”
The case has “covered one third of my career,” he said. “It has been a constant presence in my life for the last 12 years.”
Clifford Chance said it was “in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident” and that its thoughts are with Morvillo and his wife. “Our utmost priority is providing support to the family,” the firm said.
The chairman of Morgan Stanley’s London-based investment banking subsidiary, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife, Judy, were also among the yacht’s missing.
Bloomer is chairman of both Morgan Stanley International, which covers markets outside the U.S., and the Hiscox Group, an insurer that does business on the Lloyd’s of London insurance marketplace.
Lynch appointed Bloomer to Autonomy’s board of directors in 2010, where he served as chairman of the audit committee at the time of the HP deal. Bloomer testified for the defense at Lynch’s trial.
Both Morgan Stanley and Hiscox said they were “deeply shocked and saddened” by the tragedy.
“Our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular the Bloomer family, as we all wait for further news from this terrible situation,” the bank said.
Aki Hussain, the group chief executive of Hiscox, said “our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular our chair, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, who are among the missing, and with their family as they await further news from this terrible situation.”
In a strange coincidence, another former Autonomy executive who was acquitted alongside Lynch of the fraud charges died days before the sinking of the Bayesian.
Stephen Chamberlain “was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out running,” his lawyer Gary Lincenberg said in a statement.
Chamberlain, formerly a vice-president of finance at the company, was accused of artificially inflating Autonomy’s revenues and making false and misleading statements to auditors, analysts and regulators.
He stood trial with Lynch, and was also found not guilty.
“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity. We deeply miss him,” Lincenberg said. “Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family.”
Chamberlain “was a much-loved husband, father, son, brother and friend,” his family said in statement released through Cambridgeshire Police. “He was an amazing individual whose only goal in life was to help others in any way possible.”
Police said the driver, a 49-year-old woman, remained at the scene in the village of Stretham, England, and was assisting with the investigation.
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AP writer Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.
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