British tech billionaire Mike Lynch is missing after his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.
The British-flagged superyacht Bayesian sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily, leaving one person dead and six missing.
The incident comes just weeks after the death of the 59-year-old doctor. Lynch was acquitted of all charges by a US jury in June in a high-profile fraud case linked to the 2011 sale of software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP).
He has been charged with conspiracy and attempted fraud in connection with the £8.3 billion sale to HP, a deal that has since become the subject of costly legal proceedings. Politicians and business leaders alike have vehemently protested his extradition to the United States on the grounds that Autonomy is a UK-listed, UK-regulated and UK-audited company and therefore any case should be tried in the UK.
It was the largest acquisition of a FTSE 100 company by a technology group at the time, but HP wrote down the value of Autonomy by £5.5bn in a year, citing inflated revenue streams.
Who is Mike Lynch?
As a mathematician specialising in probability calculations, he recognised the potential disadvantages in a US trial.
According to an analysis by the think tank Pew Research Centre, in 2022 only 0.4% of defendants in US federal criminal cases will be tried and found not guilty.
Serial entrepreneur and Ilford-born Dr Lynch is said to be Britain’s Bill Gates, Britain’s first tech billionaire.
His father was a firefighter and originally from County Cork, and his mother was a nurse from County Tipperary, Ireland.
The 2023 Sunday Times Rich List estimates that he and his wife Angela Bakales (57) have a fortune of £852 million.
It was confirmed that Bakales was among those rescued.
He is co-founder of cybersecurity company Darktrace, also a former FTSE 100 company. But his association with the company at a time when it was facing serious allegations caused its share price to fall and it was at risk of being taken over by a US private equity firm. Lynch.
That prediction came true in April when US private equity firm Thoma Bravo agreed to buy Darktrace for £4.2bn.