- British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch reportedly missing after yacht sinks off Sicily
- There were 22 people on board and only 15 people have so far been rescued
- Bad weather has been blamed for the ship sinking
- The luxury yacht had people from the UK, US, Canada, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Ireland on board
British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch reportedly missing after yacht sinks off Sicily
At least one person has died and six others remain missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily during bad weather.
British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is reportedly among those missing.
There were 22 people on board and only 15 people have so far been rescued including a child, aged 1.
The captain of a nearby ship says he found 15 survivors in a life raft and alerted the coastguard.
A wreck has been located at a depth of 50m (164ft) below the water’s surface. As well as the British people on the yacht, it’s been reported that those onboard were nationals of the US, Canada, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Ireland.
Who is Mike Lynch?
Mike Lynch is a British businessman who made his fortune in the IT industry.
He co-founded software company Autonomy in Cambridge in 1966 and it rapidly became one of the UK’s leading tech firms.
His company’s success led it to be sold to computing giant Hewlett-Packard for $11bn (£8.6bn) in 2011 – a deal Lynch made £500m ($647m).
However the acquisition soon fell apart and led to him in legal trouble for many years.
The US brought charges against him in 2018 accusing him of inflating the value of the firm by using backdated agreements to mislead about the company’s sales, said he had concealed the firm’s loss-making business reselling hardware, and also accused him of intimidating or paying off people who raised concerns.
But he was eventually extradited to the US in 2022 to face trial – a process which culminated in June with his acquittal.