A luxurious yacht sank off the coast of Sicily, Italy, leaving Mike Lynch, also known as “the British Bill Gates,” and his daughter Hannah among the missing.
According to the BBC, a 56-meter luxury yacht carrying 12 passengers and 10 crew members from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Sri Lanka, and Ireland sank around 5 a.m. after being caught in a storm. The disaster resulted in one death and six people missing, including Lynch and his daughter.
The yacht had been anchored when its mast suddenly broke, causing it to tilt and sink rapidly. The rescue team managed to save 15 people from the water.
Among the survivors are Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, a one-year-old baby, and a lawyer from Lynch’s legal team.
Divers recovered one body from the sunken yacht at a depth of 49 meters, but details remain unclear aside from the fact that the deceased is male.
Lynch was born into a working-class family on the outskirts of London. In 1996, he founded the software company Autonomy, which he grew into a major public enterprise. This success earned him the nickname “the British Bill Gates.” He was awarded the Order of the British Empire for contributing to the British business community. He was also elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and the Royal Society in 2014.
In 2011, Lynch served as a scientific advisor to then-Prime Minister David Cameron, guiding the risks and potential of artificial intelligence. That same year, he sold Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion. However, in 2018, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Lynch with financial fraud, accusing him of inflating Autonomy’s performance during the sale. After spending about a year under house arrest while awaiting trial, he was acquitted in June of this year.
Reports indicate that the yacht trip was a party to celebrate Lynch’s acquittal, attended by law firm members and representatives from Lynch’s Invoke Capital.
After his acquittal in June, Lynch expressed his joy over the verdict, stating, “I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field.”
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