Mike Lynch yacht sinking latest: Tributes pour in as search for daughter continues

He was terrified that he would die in a US prison, not because he was guilty – he had spent £30m on legal fees arguing his innocence – but because it’s almost unheard of in the US to win a case against the US Justice Department. His chances of winning were put at 0.5 per cent. However, after 13 years of putting together detailed evidence to support his plea, he was acquitted and it felt like a miracle.

Once back in the UK, Lynch set about celebrating what he called his second life. Through tears, he told one interviewer how even the traffic in London seemed magical. “I’m just thinking this is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” he said.

This month, the tech tycoon took his family, friends and lawyers for further celebrations on a Mediterranean cruise aboard his luxury sailboat. It sank in a freak violent squall in the small hours of Monday. His body was discovered on Wednesday, alongside five others recovered from the sunken Bayesian superyacht with his 18-year-old daughter Hannah still reported missing.

Jonathan Margolis writes:

Mike Lynch, the tech tycoon who died when his luxury yacht sank off Sicily, spent more than a decade building Britain’s biggest software company and almost as long again fighting charges he had inflated its value to secure a multi-billion-pound sale.

Lynch’s body was retrieved on Thursday from the wreck of Monday’s disaster, a senior Italian official said.

Lynch founded Autonomy in 1996 from his ground-breaking research at Cambridge University, and was lauded by shareholders, business leaders and politicians when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion 15 years later.

But in late 2012, HP stunned Wall Street and the City of London by saying it had discovered a massive accounting scandal. Lynch denied the charges.

HP wrote off $8.8 billion of value and triggered 12 years of legal battles in courtrooms from London to San Francisco.

Lynch was known for his formidable intelligence, turning his cutting-edge academic research into a multi-billion pound tech business and becoming known as Britain’s Bill Gates.

He did not shy away from clashing with critics of his company – including on one occasion Oracle’s Larry Ellison – and took a central role in building his defence.

He hired the biggest names in Britain’s legal and corporate communications professions, and invited some journalists into a room filled with neatly stacked piles of company documents to be briefed on its accounts.

HP had been drawn to Autonomy’s ability to search and organise unstructured information for clients, a killer application in a world of unlimited data, before the emergence of advanced artificial intelligence.

Lynch received about $800 million for his stake in Autonomy.

The bodies of those found in the search for six people missing after the sinking of a luxury yacht during a storm off the coast of Sicily are being recovered from the wreckage.

Five bodies have now been brought to shore in the small fishing village of Porticello, around 11 miles from the Sicilian capital of Palermo.

On Thursday, the Italian Coastguard confirmed to the PA news agency that the sixth and final person yet to be found is a woman.

These are the details of each of the victims on board:

An Italian doctor at the hospital where British tourist Charlotte Emsley and her one-year-old daughter were taken said the mother held her baby above the waves after the yacht sank.

Dr Domenico Cipolla, of Di Cristina Children’s Hospital in Palermo, told PA: “Obviously the mother and the husband were so shaken by what has happened, it was a tragedy for them.

“She told me that two minutes after falling asleep with her baby they were in the water, she did not understand how this happened, it went dark.

“She held the child high in her arms above the waves, for a few seconds the baby was in the water, but she saved her.

“She sometimes cried for her friends in the hospital.”

Hannah Lynch, 18, had been onboard her tech tycoon father’s luxury boat alongside 20 others, when the Bayesian capsized during stormy weather.

The bodies of Mr Lynch, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo, have all been recovered from the wreckage and identified.

My colleague Holly Evans reports:

The luxury yacht’s captain, James Cutfield, was reportedly questioned by authorities for two hours as they began speaking to all crew members on Thursday.

Survivors have been recuperating at a hotel complex in Porticello, where authorities are gathering witness statements.

The Italian Coastguard’s working theory is still that the missing woman is inside the boat, spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola has said.

Mike Lynch’s daughter Hannah is the only person yet to be found after six people went missing when the Bayesian superyacht sank.

Christopher Morvillo’s law firm has said it is “heartbroken” at the tragic death of the US lawyer and his wife Neda.

In a statement issued to The Independent on Thursday, a Clifford Chance spokesperson said: “We are heartbroken at the tragic passing of our partner, Christopher Morvillo and his wife, Neda. We are deeply saddened and still coming to terms with this terrible loss. Our utmost priority is to continue to support Chris’s family at this very distressing time. Our thoughts extend to the families and loved ones of all those affected.

“We wish to express our deepest condolences and our love and support to Chris’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time. We also want to thank the Italian authorities and rescue teams for everything they have done.”

A decision on whether to raise the sunken yacht from the seabed is “not on the agenda”, but will be in the future, a spokesman from the Italian Coastguard has said.

Vincenzo Zagarola told PA: “This is not a topic on the agenda. It will be, but not now.”