Who are Mike Lynch, others missing from sunken yacht?

( NewsNation ) — The search is ongoing for tech magnate Mike Lynch and five others who are unaccounted for after a storm sunk their yacht Monday near the Sicilian coast.

Lynch, one of the U.K.’s most prominent tech entrepreneurs, was one of 22 people on board his wife’s British-flagged Bayesian superyacht . It was anchored near Porticello when an unexpectedly violent storm tore through the area before dawn.

The wreck comes two months after a jury acquitted Lynch of fraud and conspiracy charges rooted in a multibillion-dollar 2011 business deal with Hewlett-Packard.

The outing was partially a celebration of the acquittal as Lynch looked “forward to what was coming next,” Reid Weingarten, a Washington attorney and a member of Lynch’s defense team who was not on the yacht, told The Associated Press.

“A lot of people went, a lot of people were planning to go, and then of course, this happened,” Weingarten said.

Several others on the ship had direct ties to Lynch. His wife Angela Bacares and their 18-year-old daughter Hannah were each aboard the yacht. Bacares was among those rescued. Lynch and his daughter remain missing.

Who is Mike Lynch?

For a time, media outlets lauded Lynch as the “ Bill Gates of Britain .”

In 1966, the Cambridge-educated mathematician founded his software company Autonomy, which made a search engine that could quickly sift through company emails and internal business documents to find important details.

Autonomy continued to grow over the next decade, at which point Lynch received one of the U.K.’s highest honors in 2006: the Office of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Lynch went on to sell Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011 for $11 billion. He came under fire in 2012 when HP accused him of inflating how profitable his business looked to make the sale.

The decadelong legal battle resulted in Lynch’s extradition from the U.K. to the U.S., where he faced criminal fraud and conspiracy charges. The tech mogul denied any wrongdoing and said HP used him as a scapegoat for its oversights.

A federal jury cleared Lynch of criminal charges in June following a trial in San Francisco. However, he faces unfinished and potentially costly business tied to an ongoing civil case in London, where HP is seeking $4 billion. Damages haven’t been determined in that case.

Who are the other people missing from the yacht?

Lynch and his daughter remain missing.

Also missing from the sunken ship are Jonathan Bloomer, the 70-year-old chairman of Morgan Stanley International and the insurer Hiscox; his wife, 71-year-old Judy Bloomer; Christopher Morvillo, a 59-year-old attorney who represented Lynch during the San Francisco criminal trial; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Fifteen people escaped before the yacht capsized . One crew member is confirmed dead. The Italian coastguard told Sky News that divers recovered a body later determined to be that of Canadian-Antiguan crew member and chef Recaldo Thomas.

Friends posting about Thomas’ death remember him as a “very special person” recognizable by his “great kindness,” generosity, and love.

Who was rescued?

The search for missing passengers is ongoing, but officials so far have confirmed at least 15 survivors.

They include Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares; Charlotte Golunski, a partner at Lynch’s venture firm, Invoke Capital; her husband, James Emslie; their 1-year-old daughter; Ayla Ronald, a lawyer at Clifford Chance; and her partner Matthew Fletcher, The New York Times reported.

Eight of those rescued were hospitalized, while the others were taken to a hotel. The rescue operations, which were visible from shore, involved helicopters and rescue boats from the coast guard, fire rescue and civil protection service.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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