The News
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer are among six people now presumed dead after a storm caused their yacht to capsize off the Italian island of Sicily.
The Italian coast guard said Tuesday that their bodies are likely trapped inside the sunken yacht, with rescuers still trying to get access to the wreckage.
Lynch, who cofounded the software company Autonomy, and Bloomer were among 22 people on board: One man’s body has been recovered and 15 people have been rescued. The missing also include Lynch’s daughter and Bloomer’s wife.
Lynch — once dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates” — was recently acquitted of US criminal charges in June after a lengthy fight over his company’s $11 billion sale to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
The 59-year-old suggested last month he wouldn’t have survived prison due to his health: “If this had gone the wrong way, it would have been the end of life as I have known it in any sense,” he told The Sunday Times.