Three leading figures from the worlds of tech, banking and law, along with members of their families, are presumed dead after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily, Italian coast guard officials said Tuesday.
Tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch , Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo were among those unaccounted for after the yacht was hit by a sudden thunderstorm Monday off the coast of Sicily, according to people familiar with the matter.
One of Lynch’s daughters, Bloomer’s wife Judy and Morvillo’s wife Neda were also among the missing.
Authorities confirmed the body of the yacht’s cook had been recovered.
The coast guard said the bodies of the missing are likely trapped in the yacht. Rescuers were reassessing how to access the wreckage, after the first inspection by cave divers was blocked by debris, the coast guard said.
“The space is very tight, because everything fell when she capsized,” Luca Cari , the head of Italy’s national firefighters’ corps told reporters. “Divers are trying to remove furnishings, wires and other debris to clear the passageways.”
The U.K. government said Tuesday it had sent a team of marine-accident investigators to Sicily’s capital, Palermo, to assist the Italian authorities.
Diving teams, helicopters and patrol boats were deployed to help the rescue effort, the spokesman said.
Lynch, one of the U.K.’s most celebrated tech entrepreneurs, was recently acquitted in the U.S. over allegations he fraudulently inflated the value of the company he sold to Hewlett Packard for $11 billion.
Many of the guests on board the boat had gathered to celebrate Lynch’s freedom following around a year of house arrest in the U.S.
Bloomer previously headed the audit committee at Autonomy, the company that Lynch founded and sold to Hewlett Packard. Morvillo, a senior partner at law firm Clifford Chance and a former assistant U.S. attorney in New York, represented the British entrepreneur during his U.S. trial.
A total of 22 people were aboard the vessel when it went down just before sunrise Monday.
Divers operate in the sea to search for the missing, including British entrepreneur Mike Lynch, after a luxury yacht sank off Sicily, Italy August 19, 2024. Vigili del Fuoco/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. DO NOT OBSCURE LOGO.
Yacht charter sites listed the yacht, named the Bayesian, for rent for 195,000 euros, equivalent to $215,000, a week. It was owned by Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares . The 184-foot vessel could accommodate up to 12 guests and 10 crew.
Fifteen people, including a 1-year-old girl and Bacares, were rescued. Ayla Ronald , a lawyer who worked on Lynch’s fraud case, was also one of the survivors, her father, Lin Ronald , said.
The yacht, which brokers valued at around $35 million, was anchored near the port of Porticello overnight Sunday when a storm hit the coast, creating a tornado-like column of air and water, a coast guard official said.
The yacht was hit by a waterspout before capsizing, authorities said. Waterspouts are common during summer, but they don’t last long and are rarely picked up by radars.
Local fisherman Dino Gallo said he was up early on the day to check the weather for fishing and saw a flare from the port at around 4:40 a.m. “I went down but there were only cushions, a tender and other debris floating. The yacht was gone,” he said. The coast guard has said there were no distress signals from the yacht.
Members of the media report from near the scene where a luxury yacht sank, off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo, Italy, August 20, 2024. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
Lynch, 59, founded software company Autonomy in the 1990s.
He was charged in 2018 by the U.S. government, which alleged that he and his lieutenants had used false and misleading documents to make the business-software maker more attractive to a potential purchaser. He unsuccessfully fought extradition to the U.S.
Lynch was acquitted of criminal charges in June, ending the nearly 13-year saga. He declared afterward that he was “elated” and looking forward to returning to what he loved, “my family and innovating in my field.”
After Lynch was acquitted in his marathon case two months ago, Morvillo wrote on his LinkedIn profile to thank his team, his wife and his two daughters. “I am so glad to be home,” he wrote in his final post on the site. “And they all lived happily ever after….”
Bloomer, 70, an accountant by training, sat on several blue-chip company boards in London, including chairing Morgan Stanley International and as nonexecutive chair of the U.K. based insurer Hiscox .
He previously sat on the board of Autonomy and was named head of its audit committee in 2010. Bloomer gave evidence in court in Lynch’s defense during HP’s lengthy legal battle against the Autonomy founder. His wife, Judy, 71, worked with several charities and listed her occupation as a psychotherapist on LinkedIn.
A few days before the sinking, one of Lynch’s co-defendants in the U.S. fraud case, Stephen Chamberlain , was struck and killed by a car while out jogging near his home in Cambridgeshire, England.
Chamberlain worked as a senior member of Autonomy’s finance department and was charged alongside Lynch in the 2018 case. He was cleared of all charges earlier this year. After leaving Autonomy in 2012, Chamberlain worked as chief operating officer for cybersecurity firm Darktrace , which Lynch also invested in.
Write to Gareth Vipers at gareth.vipers@wsj.com and Max Colchester at Max.Colchester@wsj.com
