British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his high-flying Big Apple lawyer and a Morgan Stanley banking boss are among the six people still missing after the luxury superyacht they were vacationing on sank off Sicily’s coast.
Lynch, 59, and his friends were believed to have been celebrating on board the 160-foot Bayesian sailboat after the entrepreneur was acquitted just weeks ago of criminal fraud charges in a high-profile case in the US.
Among those on board the yacht — which sank after being struck by an intense storm early Monday — is his defense lawyer, Christopher Morvillo, and Jonathan Bloomer, a finance exec who served as a character witness during the trial.
As authorities scramble to locate the missing, here is what we know about the people who are believed to be in the wreckage of the yacht and feared dead.
Mike Lynch
The tech tycoon, often dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates,” is the man behind the UK’s biggest software company — Autonomy.
Lynch, 59, was lauded by shareholders, scientists and lawmakers when he sold Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion back in 2011.
The sale of his software company cemented the tech tycoon’s reputation as a tech industry titan — but the deal quickly soured when Hewlett-Packard wrote down Autonomy’s value by $8.8 billion after alleging it had discovered a massive accounting scandal at the business.
Lynch spent the next 12 years fighting to clear his name, and was acquitted of US fraud charges just two months ago by a San Francisco jury.
The entrepreneur later said he was “elated” to be cleared after long-denying any wrongdoing and blaming Hewlett-Packard for botching the integration of the two companies.
Meanwhile, after selling Autonomy, Lynch founded the tech venture capital fund, Invoke Capital.
Hannah Lynch
The tycoon’s 18-year-old daughter is also among the missing.
Hannah only just completed her high school exams — known as A-levels in the UK — in the summer, according to a Sunday Times profile on her father published last month.
The teen graduated from the Latymer Upper School in swanky west London and was preparing to study English at the University of Oxford.
Her friends have described her as a staunch feminist and a “voracious reader and intellectual” who had always dreamed of becoming a writer.
Christopher Morvillo
Big Apple lawyer Christopher Morvillo is a partner at the white-collar law firm, Clifford Chance.
Morvillo, 59, was a key part of Lynch’s defense team as the tech tycoon fought federal charges.
He took to LinkedIn to celebrate Lynch’s court victory just two months ago as he thanked his family for their support.
“A huge thank you to my patient and incredible wife, Neda Morvillo, and my two strong, brilliant, and beautiful daughters, Sabrina Morvillo and Sophia Morvillo,” he wrote in the eerie post.
“None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home. And they all lived happily ever after….”
Before joining Clifford Chance in November 2011, Morvillo was a former assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York who worked on the criminal investigation into the Sept. 11 terror attacks
Before joining Clifford Chance in November 2011, Morvillo was a principal at Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC where he provided advice on white collar criminal defense and other regulatory matters.
Morvillo studied law at Fordham University.
Neda Morvillo
Morvillo’s wife, Neda, is the owner of a luxury fine jewelry line that she runs under her maiden name: Neda Nassiri.
She has been designing and hand-crafting jewelry in the Big Apple for more than 20 years, according to her brand’s website.
Jonathan Bloomer and wife Judy Bloomer
British banking boss, Jonathan Bloomer, has been a non-executive chairman at Morgan Stanley International since 2016.
The 70-year-old is also the chair of insurance company Hiscox and served as chief executive of insurance and investment company Prudential between 2000 to 2005.
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.”
At one point, Bloomer was also head of the audit committee at Autonomy and appeared as a character witness at Lynch’s US trial earlier this year.
The banking bigwig, who studied physics at London’s Imperial College in the 1970s, was described as an ex-employee on Linkedin as “always a friendly, approachable and engaging man.”
Meanwhile, Bloomer’s wife Judy studied English language and literature at Homerton College in Cambridge.
She has worked as a psychotherapist for nearly three decades and specialized in anxiety and stress.
Judy started her career as a teacher.
The others on board: 1 dead, 15 survivors
The only body so far retrieved in the wake of the tragedy is that of the onboard chef, Recaldo Thomas, an Antiguan citizen.
All other crew members — nine in total — had been accounted for, local authorities said.
Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was among those rescued when the luxury yacht went down, authorities confirmed.
The 57-year-old sustained injuries to her feet after walking on broken glass to flee the sinking vessel, Italy’s La Repubblica reported.
Among the other survivors was British mother Charlotte Golunski, her partner, James Emslie, and their 1-year-old daughter, Sofia, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Golunski, who is a partner at Lynch’s Invoke Capital firm and previously worked for Autonomy, recounted Monday how she momentarily lost hold of her toddler in the water as the yacht started sinking — but managed to hold her over the waves until a lifeboat inflated.
Another lawyer, Ayla Ronald, and her partner were also rescued.
Ronald, a New Zealand native, works at Clifford Chance and was among those who represented Lynch at trial, the law firm said.
With Post wires
