Just weeks ago, a tearful Mike Lynch returned to Britain a free man after being acquitted of fraud charges that could have landed him 25 years in a US jail. 

The tech tycoon, once described as ‘Britain’s Bill Gates‘, told of his ‘second life’ after finally winning a 13-year legal fight over the £8.3billion sale of his firm Autonomy to US company Hewlett-Packard. 

He was believed to be having an elaborate celebration to commemorate his high stakes fraud acquittal when tragedy struck this morning. 

So soon after his moment of triumph, the 59-year-old is believed to be among the passengers trapped onboard his luxury yacht, the Bayesian, after it sank off the coast of Sicily just before 5am. 

Divers are desperately searching the wreck, which is on the sea bed 160ft beneath the water, and the body of a man thought to be the boat’s chef was found floating alongside the vessel earlier today. 

Mr Lynch, who is one of the UK’s richest men and worth an estimated £852million, remains unaccounted for while his wife – Angela Bacares – has been rescued. 

The father of two had spoken of his ‘indescribable’ relief at being acquitted and joy at returning to Britain, and texted one friend saying it was ‘so wonderful to be home’. He has also spoken at his delight at being able to spend time with his two daughters, 21 and 18, and their six dogs.

Mike Lynch’s Suffolk home, where he keeps rare breeds of cattle and pigs

Mr Lynch (second left) is seen in the early days of his techology firm Autonomy in Cambridge

Tech tycoon and married father-of-two Mr Lynch is pictured here with his wife Angela

Mr Lynch in his younger years before he became one of Britain’s most high profile entrepreneurs 

Tech entrepreneur Lynch with his renovated mill, at his Suffolk farm

The tech tycoon, once described as ‘Britain’s Bill Gates ‘, had just told of his ‘second life’

Mr Lynch responded to his acquittal by revealing he had feared dying in prison if found guilty

Speaking in his first newspaper interview, he told The Times: ‘I’d had to say goodbye to everything and everyone, because I didn’t know if I’d ever be coming back.’ 

Mr Lynch responded to his acquittal by revealing he had feared dying in prison if found guilty – saying that medical issues meant he felt it would have been ‘difficult to survive’ time behind bars.

He added: ‘If this had gone the wrong way, it would have been the end of my life as I have known it in any sense.

‘It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life – the question is, what do you want to do with it?’

A member of staff who worked at Mr Lynch’s Chelsea home said the businessman ‘clearly had a lot of pride’ in his yacht, the Bayesian.

‘He had a miniature model of it and photos of it on the water in the hallway of his Chelsea home,’ they said. ‘When I asked him about he told me about it’s size and how much his family loved spending time on it.’

Born in Ilford, Essex, as the son of an Irish fireman and a nurse, Mr Lynch won a scholarship to Bancroft’s School, a private day school in northeast London, and later read natural sciences at Cambridge. 

At university he developed his fascination with technology, completing a doctorate and holding a research fellowship in adaptive pattern recognition.

In 1991, he set up Cambridge Neurodynamics, which specialised in computer-based finger print recognition for the police. 

Five years later he founded data analysis company Autonomy, which became one of Britain’s most successful start-ups. 

His rise to fame and fortune had been celebrated as a major and pioneering British success story and the married father of two daughters was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to enterprise.

That same year, he was appointed to the board of the BBC – and was later elected to then-prime minister David Cameron’s council for science and technology in 2011.

He advised Mr Cameron on subjects including ‘the opportunities and risks of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and the government’s role in the regulation of these technologies’.

Mr Lynch at Autonomy’s headquarters at Cambridge Business Park in 2000 

The executive – pictured in London in 2014 – became one of Britain’s best known technology entrepreneurs 

Mr Lynch pictured leaving the Rolls Building in London in 2011

He is believed to own the Bayesian superyacht which sank off the coast of Sicily this morning

Billionaire tech tycoon Mike Lynch earlier this month told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme at his ‘indescribable’ relief after being acquitted of fraud charges he faced in the US

Yet in March this year he found himself in a San Francisco courtroom to defend himself against fraud and conspiracy charges – and ultimately won his freedom.

The 59-year-old tycoon had spent much of the previous year living under house arrest with an electronic tag attached to his ankle.

Fighting his corner was a legal team led by Reid Weingarten, described as one of the US legal system’s most successful white-collar defenders.

Mr Lynch had potentially faced up to 20 years in a US prison if found guilty of 16 counts of conspiracy, and securities and wire fraud, which he denied.

The charges related to a business deal that was hailed at the time as his crowning glory – the £8.6billion sale of his software and data company Autonomy to US computer giant Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

Mr Lynch personally made more than £500million from the deal, only for HP to later wrote down three-quarters of the value of Autonomy only a year after buying it.

The US company fired Mr Lynch while accusing accusing him and other executives of having grossly inflated its size and profits during the sale.

He had previously lost a 2019 civil fraud case based on similar allegations that HP – now Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) – brought in the UK, with London’s High Court ruling in 2020 that HPE had ‘substantially won’ its case.

A frantic search is underway at the site of the shipwreck after the Bayesian sank this morning

A local Facebook group shared a picture of the yacht (left) at anchor last night. The vessel has been named as the Bayesian, and is said to sail under a British flag

The search area this morning off the coast of Porticello, Sicily

Divers from the fire service have been supporting search and rescue efforts

His separate three-year battle to avoid being extradited to face criminal charges culminated in Lynch going to the High Court to argue that American prosecutors were guilty of legal overreach which threatened UK sovereignty and its citizens.

His plea was rejected and in May last year he was flown to California, accompanied by the U.S. Marshals Service, still protesting his innocence.

And on June 6 this year he was acquitted of fraud by a jury in San Francisco, while former Autonomy finance executive Stephen Chamberlain, who faced the same charges, was also acquitted on all counts.

Earlier this month he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that being rich had helped him secure his acquittal, saying: ‘You shouldn’t need to have funds to protect yourself as a British citizen.

‘The reason I’m sitting here, let’s be honest, is not only because I was innocent but because I had enough money not to be swept away by a process that’s set up to sweep you away.’

The luxury sailboat which sank today had been docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, when a tornado hit the area just before 5am – wrecking the boat and causing it to rapidly disappear beneath the waves. 

Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares was among the 15 people who were rescued from the 180ft yacht, which had been carrying ten crew members, the owner and 11 guests.

The vessel was still at anchor near the port when the tornado struck, witnesses told Italian news agency ANSA.

Nautical maps show the last known location of the Bayesian just after 2am local time, when it was at anchor

The Sir Robert BP, a Dutch sailing ship which had been anchored nearby the Bayesian, is believed to have rescued some of those on board (file image)

With the anchor still down, the storm broke the mast, causing the vessel to lose its balance and capsize, according to reports.

The Italian Coastguard said in a statement that a nearby boat offered assistance to people before emergency services arrived. 

The Sir Robert BP, a Dutch sailing ship which had been anchored by the Bayesian, is believed to have rescued the 15 survivors.

Karsten Borner, the captain of the boat, has described how his vessel was battered by strong gusts, with his team working to stabilise it and manoeuvre it to avoid hitting the Bayesian nearby.

‘We managed to keep the ship in position, and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone,’ he said.

Once the storm subsided, Borner said he and his first mate noticed a flare in the water, and made their way towards it.

There they found the lifeboat with those who had escaped inside, according the one-year-old baby.

Its 35-year-old mother told Italian media: ‘For two seconds I lost my baby in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves.’

Divers are scouring the wreckage of the superyacht, which is 160ft underwater off the coast of Sicily

Emergency response teams are seen at the harbour near where the boat sank this morning

Emergency and rescue services work near the scene where a sailboat sank in the early hours of Monday, off the coast of Porticello

A helicopter, coastguard vessels and firefighters have been deployed to search the scene

Video posted by Vigili del Fuoco shows the rescue operation on a stretch of sea near Palermo

Search and rescue teams are still scouring the scene, with six people missing and one confirmed dead

‘I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning,’ she added. ‘It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.’

Incredibly, a group of 15 of the passengers managed to inflate a lifeboat and clamber aboard, before being rescued by a nearby vessel.

The mother, who is in hospital with her baby where she received treatment for a minor shoulder injury, described the ordeal as ‘terrible’, detailing how ‘in a few minutes the boat was hit by a very strong wind and sank shortly after.’

The ship they were staying on is managed by Camper and Nicholsons International, which says it is assisting in the search efforts in Palermo.

The firm, which does not own the yacht, said in a statement that the boat encountered ‘severe weather and subsequently sank’.

‘Our priority is assisting with the ongoing search and providing all necessary support to the rescued passengers and crew,’ a spokesperson said.

A spokesperson told the BBC they were ‘dealing with a situation onboard one of [their] managed vessels’, but would not give any further details.

The 180ft yacht has a gross tonnage of 473 tons, and was built by the Perini Navi Viareggio shipyard in February 2008 before being refitted in 2020.