British businessman Mike Lynch, who was recently acquitted in the US of an $11 billion fraud case, is among those missing after a superyacht sank off the coast of southern Italy on Monday, according to the head of the civil protection agency.
The Bayesian, a 56-metre luxury yacht, was anchored off Porticello, east of Palermo, when a sudden storm hit the coast before dawn, devastating beach clubs and small fishing ports.
Lynch’s wife was among 15 people rescued after the luxury yacht sank amid strong winds and rain off the Sicilian coast, while six others remain missing, according to Salvo Cocina of the civil protection agency.
Italian authorities have launched an investigation into the incident and the emergency response continued on Monday.
Lynch, 59, was acquitted of all charges by a San Francisco court in early June after he was accused of a massive fraud linked to the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.
He co-founded Autonomy in Cambridge in 1996.
U.S. prosecutors charged Lynch with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, and crimes linked to years of falsifying records.
He was extradited from Britain to the US to face trial on criminal charges.
Lynch, a Cambridge University graduate from Suffolk in eastern England, has denied all charges and denied any wrongdoing. If convicted of the 17 charges, he faces up to two decades in prison.
A renowned technology entrepreneur and investor, sometimes described as Britain’s answer to Bill Gates, he has won numerous awards and accolades in the UK and elsewhere.
A spokesperson for Invoke Capital, another firm he founded, declined to comment.
Lynch was reportedly on a boat with his company colleagues when the storm hit.
After his acquittal in the US, he continued to criticise his prosecution in the US.
He told the BBC that the only reason he was free was “that I had enough money not to be swept away by a process that is designed to hoodwink you.”
“As a British citizen you shouldn’t need money to protect yourself,” he said in an interview broadcast earlier this month.
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