British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch among missing after yacht sinks off Sicily

Tech tycoon Mike Lynch is among four Britons missing after a superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily.

The sailboat sank by the fishing village of Porticello in the early hours of Monday morning after getting caught in bad weather, leaving one person dead.

Fifteen people on board were rescued but a body – believed to be that of the vessel’s Canadian chef – was found in the wreck.

Another six are missing, including Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, and the Bayesian’s chef, Ricardo Thomas.

Mr Lynch, once dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, is among them, according to sources familiar with the situation. His family is believed to own the vessel.

The Autonomy co-founder, who was cleared of fraud earlier this summer, reportedly planned his holiday after spending more than a year under house arrest in the US.

Those rescued are believed to include his wife Angela Bacares. The couple were worth an estimated £852m in 2023, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

A one-year-old girl, who sustained minor injuries but is well, was also saved. A total of eight people were reportedly taken to hospital.

The girl’s mother said she held her afloat above her head “with all her strength” to save her from drowning.

A fierce storm, including water spouts, battered the area overnight, according to local media reports.

The 56-metre sailboat was flying a British flag and had mostly British passengers on board, as well as American and Canadian nationals. Ten of those on board were crew members.

Luca Cari, a spokesperson for the Italian fire rescue service, said divers had located the wreck of the boat at a depth of about 50m (163ft).

The vessel, named Bayesian, had set sail on Sunday evening.

Charlotte Golunski told La Repubblica of her battle to keep her daughter alive before they were rescued.

She said: “I kept her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards so she wouldn’t drown.

“It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I was screaming for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”

Ms Golunski, a senior associate at Invoke Capital, which was founded by Mr Lynch, told Giornale Di Sicilia: “For two seconds I lost the baby in the sea, then I immediately held her again in the fury of the waves.

“I held her tightly, tightly to me, while the sea was raging. So many were screaming. Fortunately, the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get on it.”

She recalled how she could still hear her little girl crying in her ears.

Wind had toppled the boat’s mast, which fell over the side and led to the vessel filling with water and sinking, according to a yacht industry source who spoke to The Times.

A Dutch ship nearby provided assistance after seeing the Bayesian sink.

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Karsten Börner, the commander of the vessel, named Sir Robert Baden Powell, told Giornale di Sicilia it had been difficult to stabilise his ship in the windy weather.

He said they saw a red flare coming from the area of the boat and went to rescue 15 people. The coastguard then arrived to help.

Mr Börner said: “We heard screams – we continued to search the area but we didn’t find anyone other than the 15 survivors who had already been rescued.”

Pietro Asciutto, a fisherman who saw the disaster unfold from his home on the shore in Porticello, told a local news agency: “I was at home when the tornado hit. I immediately closed all the windows.

“Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very large. I saw it sink suddenly.”

Meanwhile, it emerged on Monday that Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in his US fraud trial died after a car crash in the UK over the weekend.

Steve Chamberlain, who was Autonomy’s former vice president of finance, was hit by a car in Stretham, Cambridgeshire, while out running near his home on Saturday morning. He was rushed to hospital with serious injuries and placed on life support before he died.

Mr Chamberlain’s attorney Gary S. Lincenberg – who defended him in his decade-long legal battle with Hewlett-Packard – told i: “Our dear client and friend Steve Chamberlain was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out running

“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity. We deeply miss him.

“Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family.”

Alongside Mr Lynch, Mr Chamberlain was acquitted of all 15 charges by a jury in San Francisco in June.

Who is Mike Lynch?

Mike Lynch is a British tech entrepreneur who founded a number of companies and was once dubbed Britain’s answer to Bill Gates.

He co-founded Autonomy in Cambridge in 1996, which was a member of the FTSE100 and one of Britain’s most valuable firms before its sale to tech giant Hewlett-Packard.

Mr Lynch was cleared of fraud over the sale of the software company in June.

He had been accused of masterminded a “multi-year, multi-layered fraud” to inflate the company’s value before it was sold to HP for $11bn (£7bn).

Using the proceeds from the sale, Mr Lynch went on to set up companies including cybersecurity firm Darktrace.

He was charged in 2018 and fought extradition to the US for years, arguing that any criminal charges should be brought in the UK.

Then-home secretary Priti Patel had approved his extradition in 2022.