Tech tycoon Mike Lynch is missing after his yacht sinks off the coast of Sicily, weeks after being acquitted on £8 billion fraud charges

Mike Lynch, the British tech entrepreneur recently acquitted in a high-stakes fraud case, is missing after his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.

The incident occurred just weeks after Lynch’s remarkable legal victory, which saw him cleared of fraud by a US court after a 13-year legal battle with tech giant HP.

Lynch, often called the ‘Bill Gates of Britain’, was aboard his 56-metre yacht, Bayesian, named after the statistical method central to his academic work, when it became wrecked off the coast of Palermo in a bizarre tornado. His wife, Angela Bacares, and several other passengers were rescued, but Lynch, his daughter Hannah and several others are still missing.

The sinking marks a tragic turn in events for Lynch, who had recently celebrated his acquittal and signaled his intention to challenge Britain’s extradition laws. Lynch, who founded the software company Autonomy before selling it to HP for more than £8 billion in 2011, faced accusations that he inflated the company’s value to secure the sale. Despite losing a civil case in Britain, Lynch was found not guilty in a criminal trial in the US, a verdict few expected.

Lynch’s yacht was sailing along the Sicilian coast when it was caught in the storm. Local fishermen described seeing the ship in distress before it sank, leaving wreckage scattered across the sea surface. Italian authorities continue the search for the missing passengers, but hope is fading.

Lynch, whose fortune was estimated at $450 million, lived mainly on a farm in Suffolk, where he bred rare breeds of cattle. Known for his pioneering work in the technology industry, Lynch also played a key role in the founding of cybersecurity company Darktrace and was a prominent investor in the technology sector through his venture capital firm Invoke Capital.