David Cameron’s advisor, millionaire… Mike Lynch, the “British Bill Gates” who disappeared in the sinking of his yacht off the coast of Sicily

A superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily on Monday morning due to a storm. Among the missing is the boat’s owner, British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch.

Six people have been reported missing since a yacht sank near Palermo, off the coast of Sicily, on Monday morning, August 19. The body of the chef was found while 15 passengers and crew members were rescued by local authorities. Trapped in a storm, the 56-meter-long super-sailing boat “Bayesian” belonged to British Mike Lynch, who is among the missing. This tech personality is nicknamed the “British Bill Gates”.

Born in Ireland, he graduated from the prestigious University of Cambridge, where his projects focused on neural networks. Mike Lynch then created a handful of start-ups related to automatic and facial recognition in the 1990s, before launching Autonomy in 1996, a data analysis software that quickly went public. Mike Lynch became scientific advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron on new technologies and artificial intelligence. And in 2006, he was made an Officer of the British Empire.

In 2011, the mathematician became a millionaire when he sold Autonomy to the American computer giant Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion. HP quickly accused him and his former CFO of financial mismanagement. HP said it had discovered “significant accounting irregularities”, including artificial inflation of Autonomy’s revenues, revenue growth and margins.

Mike Lynch was indicted in 2018 in the United States and then extradited for fraud. He maintained his innocence. The Briton faced a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. At 59, suffering from a lung condition, he feared he would end his life in detention, far from his wife and their two daughters. He was finally released in June 2024 after a trial in San Francisco, California. “I can’t wait to return to the UK and get back to what I love most: my family and innovation in my field.”he said at the time.

Until the sinking on Monday, August 19, of his yacht named “Bayesian” in honor of a statistical theory, Mike Lynch was working to reform the extradition treaties between London and Washington. According to the ranking of the richest Britons in 2024, established by the Sunday TimesMike Lynch is one of the 300 richest people in the country. His wealth is estimated at 500 million pounds, or nearly 600 million euros.

In addition to Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter is also missing, as are Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, and Chris Morvillo, according to the list drawn up by the civil protection. Jonathan Bloomer is the chairman of the board of directors of Morgan Stanley International, a branch of the American bank, and of the insurer Hiscox. Chris Morvillo is a lawyer who defended Mike Lynch in his trial in the United States against HP.