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Mike Lynch found: Body of tech tycoon recovered from sunken superyacht, reports say
By Christopher Cann and Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY,
4 hours ago
The body of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was recovered on Thursday from his family's superyacht that sank off the coast of Italy after it encountered a sudden and powerful storm, according to media reports.
After four bodies were recovered from the wreck on Wednesday, Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah remains the only person unaccounted for, according to Reuters. CNBC and The Washington Post also reported the news.
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 Autonomy.
The Bayesian, a 184-feet-long British-registered sailboat, went down just before sunrise on 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 on Monday and several were hospitalized. Divers then recovered the body of Ricardo Thomas, the yacht's chef.
An exhaustive search ensued to locate six missing people, including Lynch and his daughter, as well as 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 acted as a character witness on Lynch’s behalf during his recent fraud trial while Chris Morvillo, an American citizen, was part of the team that represented Lynch.
Hannah, the younger of Lynch's two daughters, remains the only person still missing. She was preparing to study English literature at Oxford University, according to the Sunday Times.
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An investigation opened by local prosecutors into the cause of the disaster is ongoing.
The U.K.-registered yacht belonging to Lynch's wife was built by Italian ship manufacturer Perini in 2008. It 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.
Experts have pointed to a water spout, a tornado over the water that can travel up to 120 mph, that formed during the storm, as well as the heavy weight of the ship's mast, one of the largest in the world, as factors that could have led it to sink.
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci , USA TODAY ; Reuters
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