CC Partner Missing on Lynch Yacht + Co-Defendant Killed By Car

Sicily’s civil protection agency has now confirmed that along with Mike Lynch, the founder of legal AI pioneer, Luminance, Clifford Chance partner Chris Morvillo, who defended the Autonomy co-founder in his recent Hewlett-Packard fraud case, is also missing (link) following a yacht sinking off the coast of Italy.

Meanwhile, in a tragic coincidence, Stephen Chamberlain, the former vice president of finance for Autonomy, was fatally hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday morning, his lawyer said (see link). He had faced fraud charges alongside Lynch in the US in relation to Hewlett-Packard’s purchase of Autonomy.

Ahead of the incident in Sicily, Lynch had only recently won his years-long legal battle. Lynch initially had spent years fighting extradition 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. Chamberlain, his co-defendant in the trial, was also cleared of all charges.

This latest news means that co-defendants Chamberlain and Lynch were both struck down over the same weekend, but by totally different accidents.

Italian authorities have also confirmed that Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, is among the missing as a result of the yacht’s sinking. The ‘super yacht’ named Bayesian, had 22 people on board when it ran into trouble, reportedly due to freak weather conditions.