'Bill Gates of Britain’ Mike Lynch missing from superyacht Bayesian

Evening Standard

The billionaire father-of-two had been celebrating his acquittal after a 12-year legal battle before a freak tornado hit his luxury cruise in the Tyrrhenian sea.

Transcript

00:00The news sent shockwaves around the world since it broke on Monday that Mike Lynch,

00:07the UK tech tycoon worth an estimated £852 million, is among the six missing in Sicily

00:15after a superyacht he was on sunk. Officials say the luxury boat hit a freak tornado before

00:23sinking 160ft to the bottom of the seabed. 15 of the 22 on board have been rescued, including

00:31Lynch's wife Angela. His 18-year-old daughter Hannah is also missing. He's the former chief

00:39executive of the software firm Autonomy and is one of the UK's richest men. He was living

00:46something of a second life after being found not guilty in a fraud trial this summer in

00:51which he'd been given a 0.5% chance of acquittal. The cruise on the superyacht was planned by

00:58Mr Lynch to thank his loved ones and employees who'd supported him through the decade-long

01:02ordeal. He faced charges of fraud and conspiracy relating to the £8.6 billion sale of his

01:11company Autonomy to the US computer giant Hewlett-Packard in 2011. It went on to be

01:17a 12-year legal battle. After the sale, which earned him £500m, Hewlett-Packard went on

01:26to fire him and other executives, accusing them of grossly inflating the size and profits

01:32during the sale. Mr Lynch always denied any wrongdoing and in March this year he was acquitted

01:40by a jury, avoiding what could have been 25 years in a US prison. It has now emerged

01:47that his co-defendant in the fraud trials, Stephen Chamberlain, also died this week in

01:52a separate tragic incident in Cambridgeshire. He was hit by a car whilst riding his bike.

01:59The two tragic incidents are not connected, but the timing certainly adds a chilling layer

02:04to what is an already shocking tale unfolding in the Tyrrhenian Sea, as rescue crews continue

02:11to search for Mr Lynch, his daughter Hannah and four others.

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