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Here’s who owns the 62-meter superyacht docked in Victoria’s Inner Harbour

Have you spotted the massive superyacht in Victoria’s Inner Harbour?

What you’re looking at is the $100 million beauty, the Anawa.

This beast is not only 62-meters long, it also has a helicopter landing pad, a dive shop, a garage for a smaller power boat, and can accommodate a total of 20 crew members and 12 guests across six staterooms.

And if you’re wondering how much it must be to run, we have the answer to that too. According to superyachtfans.com , the Anawa has an annual operating cost of about $10 million!

It belongs to the Brazilian billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann — an 83-year-old investment banker and a controlling shareholder of Anheuser-Busch InBev. This is a brewing company that makes more than 500 brands, including Budweiser, Stella Artois and Modelo.

Lemann and his partners also own stakes in Restaurant Brands International, parent of Burger King and Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons.

According to Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s richest billionaires in 2023, he’s worth an estimated net worth of 15.2 billion USD!

Go and take a look before it departs — we definitely will be!

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Brazilian billionaire's superyacht pays a visit to Victoria's Inner Harbour

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The visiting Anawa certainly puts the “super” in superyacht.

The 203-foot-long vessel dwarfed most of the other vessels in Victoria Harbour on Tuesday. The MV Coho is larger at 341 feet, but it doesn’t have the same swag — the Anawa carries its own helicopter on deck.

Anawa was custom-designed and built in 2020 by Damen Yachting. It’s one of the company’s SeaXplorer class of vessels, billed as “long-range, luxury expedition” yachts.

It can carry 12 guests and 15 crew plus a captain, Damen said.

It’s owned by Brazilian billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann, according to superfanyacht.com. Forbes.com says the investor-philanthropist lives in Switzerland and is worth $14.8 billion.

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Who was onboard tech mogul Mike Lynch's Bayesian yacht?

Topic: Disasters, Accidents and Emergency Incidents

Six people are missing, including a man dubbed the British Bill Gates, after a luxury yacht sank off the Sicilian coast.

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch — freshly acquitted from a decade-long trial — had invited his work colleagues aboard a trip through the Mediterranean coast when a freak storm saw the yacht sink within moments.

Fifteen people escaped from the sinking vessel. The search for the missing continues.

Here's what we know so far: 

What happened?

The Italian coastguard said the yacht — the Bayesian — was anchored off the shore of port city Porticello, near the Sicilian capital Palermo, when it was hit by bad weather sometime after 4am on Monday, local time. 

Eyewitnesses said it vanished quickly beneath the waves shortly before dawn.

Managers of the sailing vessel Bayesian, Camper & Nicholsons, confirmed to the ABC that the Bayesian 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," they said. 

"The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected, but not of this magnitude," a coastguard official told Reuters.

Sicily's civil protection agency head, Salvo Cocina, said a waterspout — a tornado over the water — could have struck the yacht.

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Mr Cocina added. 

Storms and heavy rainfall had swept down Italy in recent days after weeks of scorching heat, lifting the temperature of the Mediterranean Sea to record levels and raising the risk of extreme weather conditions, experts told Reuters.

"The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius, which is almost 3 degrees more than normal. This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms," meteorologist Luca Mercalli said.

Rescuers recover the body of one of the people aboard the Bayesian.  ( AP: Lucio Ganci )

Captain Karsten Borner of the Sir Robert Baden Powell vessel told journalists he noticed the Bayesian nearby during the storm, but after it calmed he saw a red flare and realised the ship had simply disappeared.

Mr Borner said he and a crew member boarded their tender and found a lifeboat with 15 people, some of them injured, who they then took aboard and alerted the coast guard.

Search crews, including helicopters and divers, are continuing to search the wreckage, lying at a depth of 49 metres.

Specialist divers reached the ship on Monday but access was limited due to objects in the way, the fire brigade said.

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch is deploying a team of four inspectors to Italy to conduct a preliminary assessment.

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development office said it was "providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families".

Sicilian prosecutors have also opened an investigation into the event. 

Who is missing?

Lawyer Chris Morvillo (left), entrepreneur Mike Lynch, and Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer are among the missing. 

There were 12 passengers and 10 crew members aboard the yacht. 

Mr Cocina said the crew and passengers hailed from a variety of countries, including Britain, the United States, Antigua, France, Germany, Ireland, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain.

Of the 22, one man is confirmed dead and another six people are still missing. 

They are believed to be inside the hull, fire rescue spokesperson Luca Cari said.

Fabio Cefalù, a fisherman who said he responded to a flare from the vessel but found it sunk, said he stayed at the site for three hours without finding anyone.

"I think they are inside, all the missing people," he said.

Rescue teams recovered the body of the yacht's onboard chef on Monday, identified as Antiguan citizen Ricardo Thomas.

The still missing people include: 

• Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, Hannah 
• Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of global financial services company Morgan Stanley International
• Chris Morvillo , a lawyer at the British multinational law firm Clifford Chance. He worked on Mr Lynch's lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard
• The identities of the remaining two missing are still unconfirmed

Who was rescued? 

Fifteen people escaped from the sinking ship. 

Eight have been hospitalised and others were taken to a nearby hotel.

Charlotte Golunski was among those rescued, recalling the harrowing moments she held her child Sofia above the waves.  ( Supplied: Facebook  )

Among those rescued were:

• Mr Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, who was the owner of the yacht
• Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter, Sofia. Ms Golunski is a partner at Mr Lynch's firm, Invoke Capital. She says she momentarily lost hold of Sofia in the water but managed to hold her up above the waves until the lifeboat was inflated
• Ms Golunski's husband James Emslie
• New Zealand captain of the yacht James Catfield. He told Italian newspaper La Repubblica the crew didn't see the storm coming
• A lone Dutch citizen was identified by the Dutch foreign ministry as being rescued, but was not identified

Who is Mike Lynch?

Mr Lynch, once hailed as Britain’s king of technology, was recently freed from a Silicon Valley lawsuit that tarnished his legacy. 

The 59-year-old Cambridge-educated mathematician created Autonomy , a search engine that could pore through emails and other internal business documents to help companies find vital information more quickly. 

He received the OBE for his innovation in 2006. 

He then sold the software to Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $US11 billion ($16 billion) in 2011, with Mr Lynch personally netting $US800 million. 

HP valued Autonomy at $US46 billion ($68 billion) in the months leading up to the deal.

Mike Lynch in 2019 leaving the High Court in London.  ( Reuters: Henry Nicholls/File Photo )

But the deal quickly turned sour after he was accused of forging the software's financial records to make the sale.

As part of a decades-long legal battle against HP, Mr Lynch was extradited to the UK on criminal fraud charges. 

He steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, asserting that he was being made a scapegoat for HP's own bungling. 

He was eventually cleared of all charges in June this year. 

Although he avoided a possible prison sentence, Lynch still faced a bill from a civil case in London that HP mostly won during 2022. Damages haven't been determined in that case, but HP is seeking $US4 billion. 

Following the San Francisco trial, Mr Lynch said he would return to the UK and do what he loved most: "[being with] my family and innovating in my field."

The holiday appeared to be something of a celebration after Mr Lynch's acquittal, with guests including some of the people who had stood by Lynch throughout the ordeal.

This picture shows the rescue operations off the Sicilian coast.  ( AP: Italian Coast Guard  )

In a separate act of tragedy, Mr Lynch's co-defendant in the trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died on Monday, after a road accident left him critically injured.

Mr Chamberlain — Autonomy's former vice-president of finance alongside Mr Lynch — was hit by a car in Cambridgeshire on Saturday morning and had been placed on life support. 

What is the Bayesian?

The luxury yacht is 56m long sailboat, with a 75m mast labelled as the tallest aluminium mast in the world.

It was previously named Salute when it flew under a Dutch flag.

The yacht, built in 2008 by the Italian firm Perini Navi, can accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites and a crew of 10, according to online specialist yacht sites. It was last refitted in 2020.

Online charter sites listed it for rent for up to 195,000 euros (about $AU 321,000) a week. 

This picture taken on Sunday shows the Bayesian (left) and the Duch sailboat Sir Robert Baden Powell anchored off the coast line.   ( AP: Fabio La Bianca/Baia Santa Nicolicchia )

The ship also won a string of awards for its design. 

Ms Golunski said the yacht had travelled through the Aeolian Islands, Milazzo and Cefalù before sinking. 

It is likely the yacht's name would resonate with Mr Lynch because his PhD thesis and the software that made his fortune was based on Bayesian theory.

A pair of multimillion-dollar yachts sailed past Victoria on Monday, both owned by billionaire brothers who made the bulk of their fortunes as owners of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

The 87-metre yacht Lonian was trailed by its 66-metre support yacht Hodor, described by Boat International magazine as "the world's largest floating toy box."

While the Lonian can accommodate 12 guests, 27 crew and a helicopter of its own, the catamaran-style support ship acts as a kind of floating garage, carrying speedboats, jet skis, motorcycles and ATVs.

"The idea was to get all the clutter off the mothership and on board a dedicated vessel," the Hodor's first officer told the magazine last year.

"There was no need to restrict the quantity of toys we put on board. The owner just let us go ahead and fill it with cool stuff."

The Hodor's designer, Incat Crowther, says the support ship "accommodates an astounding number of toys, facilities and personnel," which includes a submarine garage and a scuba-diving platform complete with onboard air compressors and "a hospital with decompression chamber."

According to financial transparency website OpenCorporates , the vessels are owned by a pair of holding companies controlled by Fertitta Enterprises, the family company of Lorenzo Fertitta and brother Frank Fertitta III.

According to Forbes magazine, the casino-magnate brothers bought the UFC for US$2 million in 2001 and sold it in 2016 for US$4 billion, while retaining stakes in the company which sold in 2017 at a US$5-billion valuation.

Vessel-tracking website marinetraffic.com indicates the yachts were en route to Vancouver from Seattle.

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A ‘Tornadic Waterspout’ Likely Sank a Billionaire’s Yacht Near Sicily. Here’s What That Means

Scientists say the extreme weather phenomenon could grow more common as climate change brings warmer water temperatures and more intense storms to the Mediterranean

Rudy Molinek

Mass Media Fellow, AAAS

The Phoenicians, who sailed the Mediterranean Sea 3,000 years ago, often used a stretch of water east of Palermo, Sicily, as a safe harbor . The area is protected from the strong, cold winds that blow southeast out of France. More recently, the anchorage has become a haven for billionaires and their yachts. But that safety was shattered this week with the sudden sinking of tech magnate Mike Lynch ’s yacht, the Bayesian .

Around 4 a.m. local time on Monday, a sudden and violent storm rocked the calm waters. Local residents tell the New York Times ’ Emma Bubola and Michael J. de la Merced that the storm brought some of the strongest winds they’d ever experienced—it “felt like an earthquake.”

Minutes later, the yacht was underwater. Of the 22 people aboard, local responders rescued 15, recovered six bodies— including Lynch’s on Thursday—and are still searching for his 18-year-old daughter.

Fabio Genco, head of the Palermo Emergency Medical Services, was one of the local responders who treated the survivors. “They told me that suddenly they found themselves catapulted into the water without even understanding how they had got there,” he says to NBC News ’ Claudia Rizzo, Claudio Lavanga and Yuliya Talmazan. “The whole thing seems to have lasted from three to five minutes.”

Meteorologists have since suggested the ship was sunk by a spinning column of air and moisture called a “tornadic waterspout.” The extreme weather phenomenon is brought about by warm sea surface temperatures during a storm.

This powerful event lasted just minutes and hit only a small area, sparing a boat moored just a short distance from the Bayesian yacht. The waterspout’s sudden onset would have caught the crew by surprise, especially at such an early hour, experts say. “Episodes of such speed and intensity mean that even if you are prepared, it is difficult to react in time,” Luca Mercalli , the president of the Italian Meteorological Society, tells the Guardian ’s Angela Giuffrida.

Waterspouts tend to form above warmer waters , and their cylindrical structures take shape as rising humid air is spun into a vortex by incoming winds. Intense tornadic waterspouts, like the one that sank the Bayesian , occur in association with severe thunderstorms. They are “often accompanied by high winds and seas, large hail and frequent dangerous lightning,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .

While predicting any individual waterspout is nearly impossible, since it’s such a small phenomenon, scientists can use models to foresee the conditions under which they’re likely to occur. Meteorologists look for warm, moist air, changing wind and an instigating factor like a cold front that can set off the storm. This combination of conditions is becoming more common in a changing climate that’s warming with the emissions from burning fossil fuels.

For the last two months, the region where the Bayesian sank has experienced extreme heat. Sea surface temperatures have hit 86 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 5.4 degrees above average. “With a high sea-surface temperature (as in the case of a heatwave), there is more energy for storms,” Bogdan Antonescu , an atmospheric physicist at the University of Bucharest in Romania, says to the Conversation ’s Jack Marley.

This weekend, a burst of cold air broke the heat and brought heavy thunderstorms to Sicily. With the warm water below, conditions were ripe for a disastrous waterspout.

“Sea temperatures of three degrees higher means an enormous quantity of energy for storms,” Mercalli tells the Guardian . “ And when cold air arrives, it’s explosive.”

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Rudy Molinek | READ MORE

Rudy Molinek is  Smithsonian  magazine's 2024 AAAS Mass Media Fellow.

Macabre Twist in Shock Sinking of Missing Tech Billionaire’s Yacht

Mike Lynch is feared dead after his yacht sunk off the Italian coast—just days after his former VP was fatally struck by a car.

Josh Fiallo

Breaking News Reporter

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/X/Reuters

Mysterious circumstances that preceded the sinking of billionaire Mike Lynch ’s yacht on Monday morning have left the internet abuzz with conspiracies.

That’s because Lynch’s ex-colleague and c0-defendant in a recently-closed U.S. fraud trial was fatally struck by a car on Saturday—two days before authorities say a tornado abruptly sunk Lynch’s yacht off the coast of Sicily. Both men were acquitted following the trial.

Stephen Chamberlain, the financial vice president of Autonomy during Lynch’s reign as CEO, was critically injured by a car that crashed into him as he was out for a jog on Saturday. He was placed on life support but succumbed to his injuries on Monday, his attorney Gary Lincenberg confirmed.

Police in Cambridgeshire said a blue Vauxhall Corsa struck a man in his 50s, now known to be Chamberlain, ultimately killing him. Officers said the unnamed woman who struck him, aged 49, remained at the crash site.

“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity,” said Lincenberg of Chamberlain. “We deeply miss him. Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family.”

Chamberlain stood trial alongside Lynch, 59, as they were charged with fraud in connection with the $11 billion sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011—a case that ended with a San Francisco jury acquitting the men in June.

They faced more than 20 years in federal lock up had they been convicted.

Aboard Lynch’s ill-fated trip in his 184-foot sailing vessel Bayesian were the attorneys who’d led his defense against U.S. prosecutors. He’s now feared to be dead, along with five others who remained missing on Monday night.

Divers were dispatched to the sinking site of the Bayesian. Six people, including two Americans, remained unaccounted for by Monday night.

Reuters via handout

That tally includes Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, as well as one of his attorneys. Two Americans are also reportedly among the missing and another British national. Italian authorities said they’re still searching for those unaccounted for and that dive teams have been dispatched. The body of a Canadian chef has already been recovered from the vessel.

A lawyer aboard the Bayesian’s ill fated trip was the 36-year-old Ayla Ronald, the The Telegraph reported. Her father, Lin Ronald, said the trip was to celebrate Lynch’s acquittal.

Among the survivors of Monday’s tragedy was Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares. She told La Repubblica that she sustained abrasions to her feet during the chaos and is now unable to walk.

Witnesses of the Mediterranean storm told Italian news agency ANSA that the ship was anchored in front of the port of Porticello when a tornadic waterspout formed and struck the Bayesian. The vessel sank shortly after.

“I was at home when the tornado hit,” Pietro Asciutto, a local fisherman, told ANSA. “I immediately closed all the windows. Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very large. I saw it sink suddenly.”

The Bayesian, a 56-meter-long sailboat, was photographed (left) off the coast of Palermo just hours before sinking.

Baia Santa Nicolicchia/Fabio La Bianca

Fabio Cefalù, a trawler captain who was nearby, told the BBC that he went to where the Bayesian sunk not long after the waterspout passed. Within 10 minutes, all that remained of the vessel was a series of floating items from its deck. He said he saw no survivors in the water.

Loved ones of Lynch largely haven’t spoken out since his disappearance, possibly in hopes that he may miraculously reappear. Some reports have described the tech billionaire, who didn’t maintain a public social media presence, as admiring James Bond, building model railways, and breeding koi carp. He had a second daughter, aged 21, and six dogs, reported The Daily Mail .

“At the companies he ran, Lynch is said to have put his own personal stamp, indulging his penchant for James Bond,” reported The Guardian on Monday. “Conference rooms were reportedly named after Bond enemies, such as Dr No and Goldfinger, and Autonomy even had a piranha tank in the atrium, in a nod to the 007 caper You Only Live Twice.”

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast  here .

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Superyacht maker's CEO: Bayesian's crew made an 'incredible mistake'

The body of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was recovered Thursday from his family's superyacht that sank off the coast of Italy after it encountered a sudden and powerful storm, authorities said.

After four bodies were recovered from the wreck Wednesday, Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, remains the only person unaccounted for, Massimo Mariani, of Italy's interior ministry, told Reuters. Her body may have been swept out to sea, Mariani said.

It could take divers more time to find her body because of the difficulties of accessing the sunken ship more than 160 feet down, said Luca Cari, a fire brigade spokesperson. Rescuers faced a challenging task in scouring extremely deep and narrow spaces around the boat.

Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of Italian ship manufacturer Perini, which made the ship in 2008, told Reuters on Thursday, "The boat suffered a series of indescribable, unreasonable errors."

He said the crew made an "incredible mistake" in not preparing for the storm, even though it was announced in a shipping forecast earlier. "This is the mistake that cries out for vengeance," he said.

Lynch, 59, was best known as the co-founder of Britain’s largest enterprise software, Autonomy, which was sold to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. He had invited his friends on the yacht to celebrate his acquittal in June of fraud charges related to the sale of Autonomy.

The Bayesian, a 184-feet-long British-registered sailboat, went down just before sunrise Monday off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, where it was anchored when a strong storm swept across the area. Of the 22 passengers and crew members on board, 15, including Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, were pulled from the water Monday, and several were hospitalized. Divers then recovered the body of Ricardo Thomas, the yacht's chef, near the ship.

Who were among the missing?

An exhaustive search ensued for six missing people: Lynch and his daughter; Judy and Jonathan Bloomer, a non-executive chair of Morgan Stanley International; and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Jonathan Bloomer was a character witness at Lynch’s fraud trial, and Chris Morvillo, an American citizen, was part of the team that represented Lynch.

Hannah, the younger of Lynch's two daughters, was preparing to study English literature at Oxford University, according to the Sunday Times.

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Investigation opened into the tragedy

Local prosecutors have opened an investigation into the disaster and will hold a press conference on Saturday.

Costantino said there were no errors in the ship's construction or design. "It went down because it took on water. From where, the investigators will tell," he said.

The ship, owned by Lynch's wife, Bacares, was constructed in accordance with international maritime standards and commercially certified by the U.K.'s Maritime and Coastguard Agency, according to Matthew Schanck, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council. It was refitted for the second time in 2020.

Experts have pointed to  a waterspout, a tornado over the water that can travel up to 120 mph, that formed during the storm, as well as the weight of the ship's mast, one of the largest in the world, as possible factors in its sinking.

Contributing: Jeanine Santucci , USA TODAY ; Reuters

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Who is Mike Lynch? The billionaire tech entrepreneur missing after sailing yacht Bayesian sinks in Italy

Once dubbed the ‘british bill gates’, mike lynch and his wife were valued at £852m in 2023, article bookmarked.

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British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is among the six people missing after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily , The Independent understands.

The 59-year-old is known for founding Invoke Capital and Autonomy Corporation and has been in the headlines after he was cleared of charges in a high-profile fraud case.

Mr Lynch was on the boat, named Bayesian, which sank in bad weather in the early hours of Monday near the Sicilian capital Palermo .

There were 12 guests and 10 crew on board - of whom 15 have been rescued including Mr Lynch’s wife, The Independent understands.

Sources have also confirmed that Mr Lynch is the owner of the vessel.

A body, believed to be that of the superyacht’s chef, has been found, according to local media, with pictures showing a body bag being brought to shore where ambulances were stationed.

Once dubbed the “British Bill Gates”, Mr Lynch and his wife Angela Bacares were valued at £852m in 2023 by the Sunday Times Rich List.

His disappearance following the superyacht sinking comes just weeks after he was cleared of all charges by a US jury related to the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011.

Mr Lynch founded Autonomy in 1996 using technology he developed as a Cambridge student. HP claimed, just a year after the sale, that Mr Lynch had used accounting tricks to artificially inflate its value before the sale

He was then extradited to the US last May for a trial that acquitted him on all 15 counts over the 11-billion dollar (£8.64 billion) purchase of his company.

Mr Lynch said on Radio 4 that being acquitted was “indescribable” and believed he could only clear his name because of his huge wealth.

He said most people, even if they sold all their assets, would run out of funds in a matter of months, to cover the legal fees, a situation that he said “has to change.”

Have you been affected by this story? Email [email protected]

Born near Chelmsford, Essex, to a nurse mother and father fireman, Mr Lynch said his father regretted not having the chance to attend university. He told LeadersIn: "He realised the importance of education so that was something that was very much fostered in my home.”

When he was 11 years old, he won a scholarship to study at Bancroft's School in Woodford Green and then studied natural sciences at the University of Cambridge.

He set up his first company in the 1980s, with a £2,000 loan from the manager of a band, producing audio products for the recording industry, The Guardian reported.

Mr Lynch has a string of accolades including being awarded an OBE for services to enterprise in 2006. That same year, he was appointed to the BBC’s board. He was also elected to former prime minister David Cameron’s council for science and technology in 2011.

A representative for Dr Lynch declined to comment.

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Search Resumes for British Mogul and 5 Others After Yacht Sinks Off Sicily

The body of the vessel’s cook was recovered while divers searched the hull of the Bayesian for passengers, including the tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch.

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By Elisabetta Povoledo

Deep-sea divers with Italy’s firefighter corps resumed their search on Tuesday for six missing passengers — including a British software mogul and his daughter — of a yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily the previous day.

Twenty-two people were on board the 180-foot British-flagged sailing yacht, the Bayesian, which was anchored near the port of Porticello, when it was hit by what witnesses described as a waterspout, a small tornado on water, during a sudden and violent storm.

Fifteen people who managed to get to a raft were rescued by the captain of a nearby sailing cruise ship. The body of the yacht’s cook, identified by news outlets as Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian Antiguan, was recovered on Monday. But several people are still unaccounted for, according to Salvatore Cocina, an official with Sicily’s civil protection agency.

Those still missing are Mike Lynch, a British technology entrepreneur; his daughter Hannah; Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Christopher J. Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Mr. Lynch was acquitted of fraud in a U.S. trial in June, ending a high-profile, decadelong legal battle against accusations that he had defrauded Hewlett-Packard when he sold his company, Autonomy, to Hewlett for $11 billion.

Mr. Lynch and the others went missing days after Mr. Lynch’s co-defendant at the fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, a former vice president of finance at Autonomy, was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out for a run, his lawyer, Gary S. Lincenberg, said in a statement.

Prosecutors in the Italian city of Termini Imerese, east of where the yacht sank, are opening a formal investigation into the yacht’s sinking. Reached by telephone, the chief prosecutor declined to comment.

The search for the missing passengers began on Monday but was suspended late that night as crews found themselves limited to the bridge deck and items like furnishings “obstructing passage,” the firefighters’ corps wrote on social media .

When divers resumed the search on Tuesday, ships trawled the waters near the site, the corps said in a statement. The Italian Coast Guard also said in a statement that search operations were “continuing unabated,” with the deployment of helicopters. There was no evidence that gasoline was leaking from the yacht, the Coast Guard said.

The yacht was lying on its right side in about 165 feet of water, meaning that divers, working in pairs, could stay underwater for only about 12 minutes at a time, said Luca Cari, a spokesman for the firefighters’ corps.

Divers were seeking a safe point of access to the vessel’s cabins. “Obviously, everything fell and the space is very tight,” Mr. Cari said, adding that the divers were having to remove obstacles, like furnishings and electrical wiring, that were “completely blocking passages.”

The firefighters’ corps said in a statement that it was impossible to verify whether people were inside the hull.

Mr. Cari said that several divers had been part of the search-and-rescue operations when the Costa Concordia, a cruise liner, capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio in 2012, killing 32 people. It is considered one of the worst maritime disasters in modern Italian history.

“It’s like the Costa Concordia, but much smaller,” Mr. Cari said in a telephone interview, comparing the search operations. “In the Costa Concordia, we came across many obstacles but we somehow were able to overcome them. Here, the obstacles block the passages and have to be removed.” He added, “This makes it more difficult.”

Crews were also trying to raise the yacht, which experts will examine to try to determine why it sank. Until then, experts can only hypothesize what happened.

Karsten Borner, the captain of a ship, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, which picked up the Bayesian’s 15 survivors, said in an interview that when the wind picked up around 4 a.m. Monday, the Bayesian was about 490 feet behind his vessel. Once the wind wound down, he said, he could not see the yacht anymore.

“My theory was that she was capsized first and then went down over the stern,” Mr. Borner said.

Dario Boote, a ship structures and naval architecture professor at the University of Genoa, said: “Now I imagine that a whole series of lawsuits will be triggered, obviously to ascertain whether there is any responsibility, as always happens very unpleasantly in these situations.” He said, however, that in this case, responsibility might be hard to determine. “Clearly, only once the wreck is raised will we know more,” he added.

Several fishermen told Italian news outlets that they had witnessed a waterspout. Peter Inness, a meteorologist at the University of Reading, said they were relatively common in the Mediterranean, though their occurrence and intensity are unpredictable.

“Until one actually forms, you can’t start telling people where it is,” Mr. Inness said, or “how to get out of the way.”

The inclement weather — with lightning intermittently streaking through the sky — made it hard to know exactly why the yacht sank. Col. Attilio Di Diodato, director of the Italian Air Force’s Center for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology, said the agency had registered intense lightning activity and strong gusts of wind in the area at the time the boat sank.

The Bayesian had one of the tallest aluminum masts in the world, according to its builder, Perini Navi. “Having a tall aluminum mast would not make it the safest port to be in case of a storm,” said Andrea Ratti, associate professor of nautical design and architecture technology the Politecnico di Milano. The type of intensity unleashed by a violent lightning storm “could have created a significant shock wave,” he added.

He, too, cautioned that “a lot of questions will remain until we have other elements at our disposal.”

Modern yachts are built to withstand meteorological events of reasonable intensity, and all international naval registers suggest that new ships be designed for higher waves and more frequent and extreme weather events.

But “this seems a case of an unreasonable extreme event,” said Emilio Fortunato Campana, an expert in Naval Hydrodynamics at Italy’s National Research Council. “In that case, no ship is 100 percent safe,” he added. “I think the Titanic showed that nothing is unsinkable.”

Elisabetta Povoledo is a reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years. More about Elisabetta Povoledo

Mike Lynch yacht: The Bayesian's owner was close to billionaire and cost an enormous sum

British entrepreneur Mike Lynch is still missing following the capsizing the yacht he was on near Sicily.

While the billionaire has yet to be found , at least one person is confirmed dead from the accident while six are reported missing. Fifteen have been rescued, including Lynch’s wife , Angela Bacares.

The luxury yacht “suddenly sank” from what’s thought to have been “terrible weather conditions”, according to NBC. Lynch, 59, is the co-creator of the software corporation Autonomy and established Invoke Capital.

• Mike Lynch yacht sinking survivors pictured for first time as search for billionaire intensifies
• Missing billionaire Mike Lynch cleared of fraud just months before superyacht sinking in Italy

How much is the yacht 'The Bayesian' worth?

The Sun reports the 56-meter sailing yacht, called Bayesian, is worth £14 million, about $18 million. The average cost to buy a super yacht, which is a yacht between 37 to 60 meters, starts at about $10 million, according to Galati Yacht Sales .

Forbes said the cost to charter the Bayesian is $215,000 for one week. The yacht was listed for sale earlier this year, though it is no longer, according to BOAT International.

Who owned the Bayesian?

The yacht is legally owned by Lynch’s wife Bacares, Forbes reported. It was built in Italy in 2008 by renowned boat builder Perini Navi.

BOAT International reports the yacht's naval architecture was developed by Ron Holland Design while the interior design is by Rémi Tessier. It was originally known as Salute until 2016 when it was retrofitted and renamed Bayesian.

When it comes to length, Bayesian is in the top 5 percent in the world. It can accommodate up to 12 guests in 6 staterooms, and it has room for 9 crew members.

It is also one of the world’s tallest, with a single mast reaching 75 meters.

• Travel Updates

Billionaire tech tycoon Mike Lynch among six missing as superyacht sinks

The captain of the Bayesian superyacht which sank off the coast of Sicily with billionaire owner Mike Lynch on board has broken his silence.

First picture of billionaire’s daughter

Plane crash in Thailand kills all on board

‘Scary’ ordeal before man climbed out plane

The captain of the Bayesian superyacht has broken his silence after the vessel sank off the coast of Sicily.

The luxury yacht was hit by a tornado yesterday off the coast of Sicily at about 5am local time.

Six people are missing including the boat’s owner, billionaire tech tycoon Mike Lynch , 59, and his daughter, Hannah, 18.

It is feared some people became trapped in their cabins.

Captain speaks out

The $27 million Bayesian sank when its vast mast collapsed and the vessel capsized.

The ship’s captain James Calfield, 51, spoke from hospital yesterday and said had no idea the tornado was coming towards the ship.

“We didn’t see it coming,” he told La Repubblica.

Some 22 horrified passengers, made up of passengers and staff, screamed in fear as the boat flipped over.

Fifteen people were rescued, six are missing and one has already been found dead – understood to be the yacht’s cook.

A source close to the recovery operation also told AFP divers who recovered the first body had seen one of the missing six trapped inside the sunken vessel.

Specialist cave divers and their equipment were flown to Sicily to access the confined spaces of the wreck.

Legal battle

The passengers on board were celebrating Mr Lynch’s recent acquittal in a fraud trial, according to British newspaper The Telegraph .

The billionaire entrepreneur sold his tech firm Autonomy to US computing giant Hewlett-Packard for $US11 billion ($16b) in 2011, but a lengthy legal battle followed as he was accused of inflating the value of the company.

A San Francisco jury acquitted Mr Lynch, who has been dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, in June.

The guests on the doomed superyacht included staff from the legal firm Clifford Chance and Mr Lynch’s company Invoke Capital, the newspaper reported.

Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, is also among the missing people, according to British newspaper The Times.

Double tragedy as co-defendant dies in England

Eerily, Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in the fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a car over the weekend. He had also been acquitted of all charges in June.

Mr Chamberlain was hit by a car on Saturday, local time, in Cambridgeshire and taken to hospital where he later died.

He was Autonomy’s vice president of finance before he left the company in 2012.

A source told The Telegraph : “Our dear client and friend Steve Chamberlain was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out running.

“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity, and we deeply miss him. He fought successfully to clear his good name, which lives on through his wonderful family.”

The Sun understands he was taken off life support on Sunday, just hours before the yacht sank.

Mr Lynch told British newspaper The Times in July that he himself had “various medical things that would have made it difficult to survive” in an American prison.

“It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life. The question is, what do you want to do with it?” he said, speaking about the verdict.

Despite the acquittal, the fraud case is not closed, international news agency AFP reports.

In 2022, London’s High Court ruled in a civil fraud case that HP had been duped and had overpaid for Autonomy.

The court has yet to rule on the billions of dollars in damages claimed by the American group.

Also sued by HP, Autonomy’s former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain was found guilty of fraud in 2018 by a US jury, with Hussain jailed for five years.

Luxury superyacht sinks

The 56-metre-long, $320,000-a-week vessel was struck by a sudden storm while moored off the coast of Porticello, east of Palermo.

Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, is among 15 people who have been rescued.

Three other Brits, two Americans, and one Canadian are among the remaining six missing.

An expert team of divers have already been able to locate the vessel 48 metres below the water on the seabed.

Almost all of the 22 passengers and crew on-board are said to have been inside their cabins and rooms when the weather took a turn.

A one-year-old British girl was rescued by her mum in the sea after the boat sank, before they were rushed to hospital.

Her mother Charlotte Golunski spoke about the frantic rescue, telling Giornale di Sicilia : “For two seconds I lost the baby in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves.

“I held her tightly, close to me, while the sea was stormy. Many were screaming.

“Luckily the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get on board.”

The father was also on-board at the time of the horror ordeal.

Ms Golunski managed to swim over to one of the rafts where she and her daughter were taken to safety along with 11 others.

Camper & Nicholsons, the managers of the yacht, said in a statement that they were “assisting with the ongoing search” for the missing people.

“The boat was all lit up. Around 4:30am, it was no longer there,” said one witness cited by ANSA.

“A beautiful boat where there was a party. A normal joyous vacation day at sea turned into tragedy”.

Karsten Borner, the captain of another yacht anchored nearby at the time of the storm, said there was a “very strong hurricane gust” and he had to battle to keep his vessel steady.

All of a sudden “we noticed that the ship behind us was gone”, he told journalists in Porticello.

“We found this life raft … with a little baby, and the wife of the owner,” he said.

Fisherman Fabio Cefalu said he and other fishermen rushed to help after seeing a distress flare go up.

“But we didn’t find anyone in the sea, we only found cushions and the remains of the boat,” he told AFP.

Tech billionaire among those feared dead

Originally from Suffolk in east England, Mr Lynch was a former adviser to two British prime ministers and once a star entrepreneur who seemed to represent a rare tech British success story.

The businessman has a fortune of £500 million ($965 million) according to the latest Sunday Times “Rich List”, and owes his fame to his software firm Autonomy which he sold to Hewlett-Packard for $US11 billion ($16 billion) in 2011.

He founded the company in 1996 in Cambridge, where he earned his doctorate, and turned it into a leading British tech firm.

But just one year after the mega-deal, HP reported a writedown of $US8.8 billion ($13 billion) – including more than $US5 billion ($7.4 billion) it attributed to inflated data from Autonomy – plunging Mr Lynch into a decade-long fraud scandal.

Prosecutors accused him of taking part in a massive scheme as Autonomy’s chief executive to deceive HP by pumping up his company’s value before its sale.

Mr Lynch was extradited from Britain to the US in 2023 to stand trial, facing two decades in jail if convicted of the 17 charges and spending the year in house arrest.

But in June he was acquitted on all charges.

“I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field,” Mr Lynch said after the verdict was handed down in a San Francisco court.

Mr Lynch – who made around $US 815 million ($1.2 billion) from the Autonomy sale – always denied the fraud charges, accusing HP of making him a scapegoat for its own failings.

After returning to the UK, Lynch told The Times newspaper in July he had “various medical things that would have made it difficult to survive” in an American prison.

“It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life. The question is, what do you want to do with it?.” he told the publication after his acquittal.

More Coverage

Father of two daughters aged 18 and 21, and a dog lover – owning two dachshunds and four sheepdogs – Mr Lynch has a home in the affluent London district of Chelsea, according to the newspaper, as well as owning a farm in Suffolk.

A spokeswoman for Mr Lynch declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

— with AFP

Tributes have flooded in for Hannah Lynch after divers found a sixth body following the tragic sinking of the Bayesian superyacht on Monday.

A plane carrying tourists has crashed shortly after taking off from Bangkok. All nine on board are believed to have died.

A Jetstar passenger has described the moment a fellow passenger opened the emergency exit where he was seated and climbed out.

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Yacht sinks: Missing tech billionaire's co-defendant died in car crash days before Italy disaster

Stephen chamberlain, 52, was vice president of finance at mike lynch's autonomy corp..

Moment luxury yacht sinks off coast of Italy caught on camera, with 6 presumed dead

Grainy CCTV footage shows the moment a storm struck the Bayesian luxury yacht, which sank Aug. 19, 2024, off the coast of Italy. Six people are missing, officials say. (Giornale di Sicilia)

A co-defendant of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was killed in England after being struck by a car just days before Lynch and five others went missing when a luxury superyacht sank off the coast of Italy on Monday, authorities confirmed Tuesday.

Divers brought three bodies in bags ashore from the yacht Wednesday, and two other bodies were found in the wreckage, The Associated Press reports, citing an Italian official. It was unclear whose bodies were found.

Stephen Chamberlain, 52, was a former Autonomy Corp. executive who was acquitted alongside Lynch in June of charges in a multibillion-dollar fraud case related to Hewlett Packard’s $11 billion takeover of Lynch’s company.

A body was recovered from the sunken yacht off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo, Italy, Aug. 21, 2024. The body's identification has not been announced. (REUTERS/Louiza Vradi)

Divers brought a second body bag ashore Wednesday. (REUTERS/Louiza Vradi)

Chamberlain "was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out running" in Cambridgeshire, his lawyer Gary Lincenberg said in a statement.

"He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity. We deeply miss him," Lincenberg said. "Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family."

MOMENT LUXURY YACHT SINKS OFF COAST OF ITALY CAUGHT ON CAMERA, WITH 6 PRESUMED DEAD

Stephen Chamberlain was confirmed to have been killed when a car struck him while he was running on Saturday. (Stephen Chamberlain via Reuters)

Chamberlain, formerly a vice president of finance at the company, was accused of artificially inflating Autonomy’s revenues and making false and misleading statements to auditors, analysts and regulators.

Chamberlain’s family released a statement through Cambridgeshire Police, saying he "was a much-loved husband, father, son, brother and friend."

"He was an amazing individual whose only goal in life was to help others in any way possible," the statement said.

Chamberlain was acquitted of fraud charges along with British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, pictured above. (Reuters/Henry Nicholls/File Photo)

Police said the driver, a 49-year-old woman, remained at the scene in the village of Stretham, England, and was assisting with the investigation.

WHO IS MIKE LYNCH, THE BRITISH TECH ENTREPRENEUR MISSING AFTER YACHT SANK?

The strange coincidence of Chamberlain’s death occurred just days before Lynch and five others, including Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s lawyers who defended him in the fraud case, and Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, who testified in Lynch’s defense, went missing when the Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily early Monday.

The other three people still missing are believed to be Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Bloomer’s wife Neda, and Morvillo’s wife Judy.

Recaldo Thomas, a chef who died in the yacht disaster off Sicily's coast, poses for a selfie in this picture obtained from social media. (Recaldo Thomas/via Reuters)

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Ten crew members and 12 passengers, including British, American and Canadian nationals were onboard when the vessel capsized. One man's body was recovered, identified as onboard chef Recaldo Thomas, an Antiguan citizen. Fifteen people were rescued, including a 1-year-old girl, authorities said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Tech Billionaire Goes Missing After Superyacht Sinks

"they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.", fatal premonition.

A British tech tycoon and his 18-year-old daughter have gone missing after the superyacht they were vacationing upon sank off the coast of Sicily.

As the BBC reports , Autonomy and Invoke Capital founder Mike Lynch and his daughter are two of the six people missing after the Bayesian, the 183-foot-long luxury yacht  on which they were sailing, sunk early in the morning on Monday after being struck by a tornado east of the port town of Palermo.

Considered " Britain's Bill Gates ," the 59-year-old tech tycoon became a billionaire after selling his enterprise software firm Autonomy to Hewlett Packard in 2011. As The Guardian  notes , Lynch was under federal fraud investigation in the United States for that sale until June of this year, when he was acquitted on all counts.

Prior to his disappearance, Lynch said that he believed that if he went to prison over the fraud charges, he would likely have died there due to a lung condition he suffers from.

"I have various medical things that would have made it very difficult to survive," he told the Guardian last month . "If this had gone the wrong way, it would have been the end of life as I have known it in any sense."

Death Spout

Witnesses to the tragedy told the Italian news agency Ansa , per the BBC , that the force of the waterspout — a tornado that occurs over water, basically — caused the ship's aluminum mast to snap in half, causing the craft to become unstable and eventually sink.

Of the 22 people on board the Bayesian, 15 people — including an infant girl and Lynch's wife Angela Bacares — have been rescued. One person, whose identity has not been revealed, has been found dead, and three other people whose names have not been revealed are also missing.

As  CNN notes in its reporting on the luxury vacation gone horribly wrong, Bacares, the one-year-old girl, and six other people were hospitalized. The person who died was apparently found on the ship's hull, per an Italian Coast Guard statement provided to CNN.

Salvo Cocina, who leads Italy's civil protection agency, noted in a media conference quoted by ABC that another superyacht in the vicinity suffered far less damage than the Bayesian.

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Cocina said.

He also noted, per  ABC , that the other nearby yacht, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, helped rescue Lynch's wife and the 14 others who were saved from the disaster.

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