British tech billionaire Mike Lynch is missing off Sicily’s coast after a yacht sank. According to local media reports, the UK-flagged superyacht named Bayesian sank during a storm, resulting in one fatality and six people missing. It is believed that Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter is among those missing, while his wife Angela Bacares has been confirmed as one of the 15 people who were rescued.
The superyacht, which is reported to be owned by the family of Mr Lynch, is believed to be named after a mathematical equation. This tragedy comes just weeks after Mr Lynch, 59, was cleared of all charges by a US jury in a high-profile fraud case involving the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011.
The successful outcome of the trial had been a relief for Mr Lynch, who had been accused of conspiracy and attempted fraud in the £8.3bn sale to HP. The deal had been subjected to costly legal action since its completion, leading to Mr Lynch being under house arrest for more than a year and spending a night in custody.
The extradition of Mr Lynch to the US to face charges had sparked widespread protests from politicians and business leaders, who argued that if there was a case to be heard, it should be heard in the UK as Autonomy was a UK-listed, UK-regulated, and UK-audited company. The sale of Autonomy to HP was the biggest tech takeover of a FTSE 100 firm at the time, but HP later wrote down £5.5bn of Autonomy’s value within a year, citing inflated revenue streams.
As a mathematician who specialized in probability, Mr Lynch would have been aware of the odds stacked against him in the US trial. The Pew Research Centre thinktank’s analysis showed that in 2022, only 0.4% of defendants in US federal criminal cases went to trial and were acquitted. A conviction would have resulted in a 20-year jail sentence.
In an interview with Sky News, Danny Fortson, US West Coast correspondent for The Sunday Times, who had interviewed Mr Lynch just over a month ago, shared his thoughts on the outcome of the trial. “When I met him, the thing that struck me was he was in a state of shock,” Mr Fortson said. “He was fighting fraud charges that threatened to put him in jail for the rest of his life for more than a decade, and he won against all the odds.”
Mr Fortson also mentioned that Mr Lynch had expressed a sense of gratitude for being given a “second life” after being found not guilty. He added, “He was in a state of shock and real gratitude that he had put this huge case that had hung over his head behind him.”
During his time under house arrest, Mr Lynch had the company of a sheepdog named Faucet, who was almost always by his side. According to Mr Fortson, the dog was very protective of Mr Lynch, and they spent 24 hours a day together for more than a year.
Despite winning the US case, Mr Lynch lost a multi-billion pound fraud action brought to the High Court by HP. The court found that HP had “substantially” succeeded in its civil case but indicated that the firm would receive considerably less than the $5bn (£3.7bn) it had sought in damages. The Serious Fraud Office had previously looked into the acquisition but dropped its investigation in 2015.
Mr Lynch, who was born in Ilford, has been described as the British Bill Gates and the UK’s first tech billionaire. His father was a firefighter from County Cork, and his mother was a nurse from County Tipperary in Ireland. According to The Sunday Times Rich List in 2023, Mr Lynch and his wife were valued at £852m. Ms Bacares, who was also rescued from the sinking yacht, is a co-founder of cyber-security business Darktrace, another former FTSE 100 company.
Mr Lynch had expressed concerns about the impact of his legal issues on Darktrace’s share price, making it vulnerable to a takeover. His prediction was proven right in April when US private equity firm Thoma Bravo acquired Darktrace for £4.2bn.
