--- title: "There’s Something Unbelievably Strange About That Billionaire Yacht Sinking" description: "As billionaire Mike Lynch's yacht sinking made headlines, the missing tycoon's recent fraud trial co-defendant died after being hit by a car. " date: "2024-08-20" modified: "2024-08-20" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/billionaire-yacht-sinking-strange-context" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "accidents" - "billionaires" - "the digest" - "yachts" --- # There’s Something Unbelievably Strange About That Billionaire Yacht Sinking ![As billionaire Mike Lynch's yacht sinking made headlines, the missing tycoon's recent fraud trial co-defendant died after being hit by a car. ]() *Italian emergency services headed out to sea towards the area off the Sicilian coast, where the search continues for British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah, who are among six tourists missing after a luxury yacht sank in a tornado off the coast of Sicily. The pair are among six tourists missing after the yacht, named Bayesian, was battered during intense storms off the coast of Palermo in the early hours of Monday. Picture date: Tuesday August 20, 2024. (Photo by Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images) \Image: Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images\* ## Bad Timing As [billionaire Mike Lynch's yacht sinking]() made headlines, the missing tycoon's recent fraud trial co-defendant died in a UK hospital after being hit by a car. As the [*BBC* reports](), the former vice president of finance at Lynch's enterprise software firm Autonomy Stephen Chamberlain was declared dead on Monday after a car hit him when he was out on a run in Cambridgeshire, the county where England's tony Cambridge University is located. Earlier that very day, a yacht said to be owned by Lynch's wife Angela Bacares called the Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily after being struck by a water-bound tornado. As [*Business Insider* reports](), the Autonomy founder, his 18-year-old daughter, his fraud trial attorney Christopher Morvillo, and the lawyer's wife are now all missing and feared dead following the crash. Bacares and several other people were rescued by a nearby vessel that, as [*ABC* noted](), did not suffer the same fate in the storm. As Italian civil protection lead Salvo Cocina said during a media conference quoted by *ABC*, the Bayesian was "in the wrong place at the wrong time" — an apt analysis that seems to have applied to Chamberlain as well. ## Twisted Fate As the [*BBC*]() and [other outlets]() reported in the wake of his untimely death note, Chamberlain had along with Lynch been accused of 11 counts of fraud related to the sale of Autonomy to Hewlett Packard in 2011. Earlier this summer, the pair were [acquitted on all those charges]() — only for tragedy to strike just a few months later. Before either man met their more recent doom, they'd been considered incredibly lucky, as the [*Daily Beast* reports](), to have been acquitted at all. Months prior to their own fraud trial, Lynch's right-hand man, ex-Autonomy chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain, was [convicted of similar charges]() and ended up [being sanctioned in the United Kingdom](). Until their acquittal, the still-missing billionaire was sure that if he met the same fate as Hussain, he'd end up dying in prison. "I have various medical things that would have made it very difficult to survive," [Lynch told *The Guardian*]() last month, following the acquittal. "If this had gone the wrong way, it would have been the end of life as I have known it in any sense." With Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter now among the missing in the Bayesian sinking and Chamberlain dead, their acquittal earlier this summer has taken on a darker tone. "In the course of 48 hours, I can’t process what has happened," explained Lynch's other attorney, Gary Lindberg, in an [interview with *BI*](), "but both of our clients, as well as Chris and his wife, are gone." **More on maritime tragedy:** [*Researchers Discover Legendary Shipwreck Using Underwater Imaging*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()