British tycoon Mike Lynch was celebrating a “second life” after his recent acquittal in “one of Silicon Valley’s biggest-ever fraud cases” with his family and legal team when their superyacht capsized in Sicily.
Lynch — who’s been dubbed the British Steve Jobs — had invited white-collar lawyer Christopher Morvillo and others from law firm Clifford Chance for a trip on the Bayesian after he was cleared in the federal case, according to a report by the Telegraph.
The three-month trial played out in San Francisco federal court and centered on allegations that Lynch schemed to inflate his software company Autonomy’s revenue when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. Within a year, the US tech company was forced to down-value Autonomy’s worth by $8.8 billion.
A jury found the Irish-born Lynch, 59, not guilty on all 15 conspiracy and wire fraud charges on June 6. Clifford Chance referred to the trial as “one of Silicon Valley’s biggest-ever fraud cases.”
“We are thrilled with the jury’s verdict, which reflects a resounding rejection of the government’s profound overreach in this case. The evidence presented at trial demonstrated conclusively that Mike Lynch is innocent,” Morvillo and his co-counsel Brian Heberlig said in a statement.
“This verdict closes the book on a relentless 13-year effort to pin HP’s well-documented ineptitude on Dr. Lynch. Thankfully, the truth has finally prevailed. We thank Dr. Lynch for his trust throughout this ordeal and hope that he can now return home to England to resume his life and continue innovating.”
Lynch had told the Sunday Times of London after the acquittal and being released from 13 months of house arrest in the US that he had a second shot at life.
“It’s bizarre but now you have a second life. The question is, what do you want to do with it?”
And just last week, Morvillo described on a legal postcast how he and Lynch were riding a high over the rare federal acquittal.
Morvillo described how the whole defense side of the courtroom “erupted” when the foreman read out the not guilty verdict after the 12-year legal saga finally came to a close.
Lynch’s wife — Angela Baraces, 57, who survived the boat accident Monday — was so ecstatic she screamed and ran from the courtroom benches into the well to hug her husband, Morvillo said.
“It was this electric moment, I’ve never seen anything like it in a courtroom before,” he continued. “Grown people sobbing, hugging … people clapping, it was remarkable.”
Lynch’s win is extremely unusual in federal criminal cases. In fact, only less than 1% of federal cases ended in acquittal in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center.
Morvillo said the day the trial ended, they had a big party “that lasted into the small hours of the morning.”
“To have this vindication after all of these years was incredible,” Morvillo said.
The celebrations continued with Lynch’s Italy trip aboard the 160-foot luxury sailboat — which was carrying 22 people made up of 10 crew and 12 passengers — sank off the coast of Porticello, Italy, after a storm hit at sunrise Monday.
The body of the vessel’s chef, Ricardo Thomas, has been recovered, 15 passengers survived and the search continues for the six remaining passengers who are considered missing — including Morvillo and Lynch.
Others among the missing are Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, Jonathan Bloomer, a chairman at Morgan Stanley International, and Bloomer’s wife, Judy.
Lynch took the stand in his defense at trial, blaming HP for botching the merger by failing to carry out proper due diligence. He also pointed the finger at his CFO Sushovan Hussain, claiming the finance officer was in charge of all the finances and accounting decisions.
The feds called more than 30 witnesses in their failed effort to convict Lynch. They included Leo Apotheker, the former HP CEO who was fired weeks after the Autonomy deal was announced.
Bloomer — the chairman of Morgan Stanley’s London-based investment banking subsidiary and the chairman of the Hiscox Group — testified in Lynch’s defense as Lynch had appointed him to Automony’s board of directors to chair the audit committee on the HP deal starting in 2010.
Bloomer’s wife Judy is also among the missing.
Ayla Ronald, a New Zealand national who worked at Clifford Chance on Lynch’
s case, had also been invited to the festivities and survived the Bayesian accident, the firm confirmed.”We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident,” read Clifford Chance’s statement. “Our thoughts are with our Partner, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife Neda who are among the missing, and with their families.”
“Our utmost priority is providing support to the family as well as our colleague Ayla Ronald, who together with her partner, thankfully survived the incident,” the statement continued. “Our thoughts extend to the other passengers and crew and all those affected.”
What to know after a tornado sank the yacht Bayesian off the coast of Sicily, leaving one dead and six missing:
- A superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily after a tornado hit the area early Monday, killing one passenger and leaving five others missing — including Michael Lynch, a tech tycoon known as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” officials said.
- Lynch had invited guests from the legal firm that represented him, Clifford Chance, and Invoke Capital, his own company, on the voyage, according to the Telegraph.
- Captain James Catfield, who piloted the 184-foot, British-flagged craft, was among the 15 crew members and passengers to survive after the tornado struck Monday before sunrise.
- Security camera footage shot from 650 feet from where the Bayesian sank Monday shows it slowly disappearing.
- Italian authorities have said the chances of the passengers surviving the disaster was very small, but “never say never.”
Ronald’s father, Lin Ronald, told the Telegraph said his daughter was “part of the legal team that were invited to go sailing as a result of the success in the recent United States court case.”
Lynch’s co-defendant and a former finance exec at Autonomy, Stephen Chamberlain, was also acquitted of all charges at the trial.
Just days before the yacht capsized, Chamberlain died on Saturday after getting hit by a car while he was out running in Cambridgeshire, England.
Hussain was convicted at a 2018 trial related to the doomed HP deal and was released from prison in January after serving a five-year sentence.
HP won a lawsuit fought in London in 2022 against Lynch and Hussain, but their legal penalties have yet to be decided. The US tech giant is seeking $4 billion in damages.
With Post wires
