Multiple news sources, including the Guardian (see story), are reporting that Mike Lynch, the billionaire British tech tycoon who founded legal AI company Luminance, as well as Dark Trace, is among the ‘missing’ after a yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.
The boat had 22 people on board when it ran into trouble, reportedly due to freak weather conditions. Local emergency services scrambled to save the passengers and according to the Guardian ’15 people were rescued’, but Lynch and several others are ‘understood to be missing’. Apparently one body has been found so far.
The news of the accident is all the more shocking as Lynch had only recently won a years-long court battle in the US for his freedom, following a dispute with tech company HP over its purchase of Autonomy, which he founded. Lynch had fought extradition for many years to America, then had eventually been confined to a property in San Francisco ahead of his high stakes trial.
In June this year he was cleared of all charges and allowed to return home.