British technology tycoon Mike Lynch – known as the “British Bill Gates” is missing at sea after a reported tornado struck his superyacht off the coast of Sicily, the Independent reports.
Lynch and daughter, Hannah, 18, and four others are missing after the “Bayesian” sailboat sank early Monday morning with 22 people on board, 10 crew and 12 guests. The guests included British, Canadian and American friends of the billionaire. Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was rescued after the sinking and was one of 15 survivors.
Some of Lynch’s guests served on the entrepreneur’s legal team and were invited to accompany Lynch after he was recently acquitted after a long trial for fraud. Lynch spent years defending himself in court from US accusations that he fraudulently inflated the worth of a company he sold to Hewlett Packard for $11 billion. He was acquitted after a trial in San Francisco, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The sinking is being investigated by a team of prosecutors in the nearby Sicilian town of Termini. Another defendant in the Hewlett Packard fraud case was also a victim of a freak accident. Stephen Chamberlain, Lynch’s former vice president of finance, died Saturday when he was hit by a car while jogging.
The crew could only react to the tornado at the last minute. The Italian Coast Guard said that no distress signal was received from the yacht. Karsten Borner, the captain of the rescue boat told RAI TV that the “yacht tipped to its side and sank within a few minutes. It all happened in really little time.”
Rescue efforts are still underway Monday evening as divers investigate the wreck of the ship that sunk to about 164 feet deep.
