Millionaires’ club: Search resumes for tech tycoon Mike Lynch and high-profile guests

Tech Tycoon Mike Lynch, Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer, lawyer Chris Morvillo, and several others are still missing following the wreck of a luxury yacht in Sicilian waters.

On Monday, the Bayesian, a British-flagged luxury yacht which had 22 people on board, including 10 crew members, sank off the coast of Sicily due to a waterspout. Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water or move from land to water and can develop during intense storms.

The yacht, a 56-metre sailboat, had just anchored offshore near the port of Porticello, when it was struck by a waterspout at around 5am.

A few moments after the wreck, and after the storm had subsided, a Dutch-flagged vessel managed to rescue some survivors from the sea. Some of the survivors confirmed so far include Mike Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, British national Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter as well as lawyer Ayla Ronald who worked within the same firm as Dr Morvillo.  

So far, the Italian coast guard has confirmed that one body has been recovered, that of the boat’s chef.

Furthermore, Mike Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter is also still missing.

This incident is even more peculiar as this was deemed as a celebration for Mike Lynch after his acquittal in the US. Therefore, most of his legal team were invited on his yacht to unwind after years in court.

On Tuesday (today), Italian authorities continued the search for the six missing people. However, they are facing difficulties as furniture is obstructing the passageway into the wreck, which lies 50 metres below.

Who are the missing individuals?

At the centre of the incident is Mike Lynch, the software billionaire who has been entrenched in a legal battle for many years.

The Irish national studied at Cambridge University and specialised in adaptive pattern recognition. His doctoral thesis is said to be one of the most widely read pieces of research in the university library.

After the launch of different tech startups, including one that specialises in automatic numberplate, fingerprint and facial recognition, he established Autonomy in 1996.

Autonomy is a software used by companies to analyse caches of data and makes use of the Bayesian interference, a statistical theory. The yacht was named after this theory.

After years of success and joining the FTSE 100 of top UK-listed companies, Autonomy was bought by Hewitt-Packard (HP) for €10 billion in 2011.

One year after the purchase, HP stated that it had discovered serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and “outright misrepresentations” and took an €8 billion write down on its acquisition.  

Since then, Mr Lynch has been involved in a legal battle to clear his reputation and has consistently denied the allegations of wrongdoing. The company’s former Finance Director Sushovan Hussain was sentenced to five years in prison in the US and was convicted of fraud in relation to the deal in 2018.

In 2022, the tech tycoon lost a civil fraud case in the UK, brought by HP. During the proceedings it was said that Mr Lynch exerted control over Hussain and that it was impossible that the founder was unaware of the fraudulent practices taking place at his company.

Mr Lynch had feared dying in prison if found guilty due to various medical issues. Therefore, he was ready to challenge the court and appeal the court’s decision on the civil fraud case.

On the other hand, Mr Lynch was acquitted from his case in the US three months ago.

Now, as celebrations turned sour, Chris Morvillo, a partner at Clifford Chance legal firm and a member of the legal team is still missing. Throughout his career he has worked on high profile corruption cases, including Mr Lynch’s acquittal.

Latest updates indicate that Jonathan Bloomer and his wife are both missing. CEO of UK-based insurance company Hiscox, which is chaired by Mr Bloomer, has confirmed the news this morning.

In even more peculiar twist of events, one of the co-defendants in the Mr Lynch’s case, Stephen Chamberlain – who had not been on vacation with the team – died on Saturday after being hit by a car while running in Cambridgeshire. He was the former Vice President of Finance at Autonomy.