A tragic sailing accident has shocked the globe as the 56-meter mega yacht that sank was carrying some of the most financially powerful people on the planet, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch with his family and the big boss of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer.
Eva Koutoumanou
Morgan Stanley's International President Jonathan Bloomer and Clifford Chance partner lawyer Chris Morvillo are among the 6 people missing after the luxury yacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily.
Blumer's wife and Morvillo's wife are also missing, as are British tech mogul Mike Lynch, 59, known as "the British Bill Gates," and his daughter Hannah, 18.
It is worth noting that the shipwreck took place about 700 meters from the coast of the island. Tragically, Lynch was celebrating on the cruise his vindication of the fraud case he was accused of.
Chris Morvillo was the lawyer defending Lynch in the financial fraud case for which Lynch was acquitted in June.
Dead two days before the accident and his partner and co-defendant
Tragic irony that leaves many question marks, however, is that a close associate of Lynch and his co-defendant in the case was killed 2 days before the yacht sank in Sicily. The 50-year-old former associate of the British tycoon was on foot when he was swept away by a passing car in Cambridgeshire.
Lynch was recently found not guilty of all charges of inflating the value of his company, which he sold for 8.6 billion pounds (about $11 billion) to U.S. giant Hewlett Packard.
Chamberlain was the former vice president of finance at Autonomy, of which Lynch was founder and CEO. They were both tried for fraud and conspiracy after allegedly artificially inflating the company's value before selling it in 2011. Both were acquitted in June in the US trial of all 15 charges.
How the shipwreck happened – Ongoing investigations
The British-flagged yacht with 10 crew members and 12 passengers on board sank near Porticello, just east of the Sicilian capital, Palermo, on Monday, August 19.
The ill-fated 56-metre-long Bayesian was carrying 22 people – 12 passengers and 10 crew members – including British, American and Canadian. Fifteen people were rescued, including a one-year-old girl from Britain and Lynch's wife.
The yacht capsized at about 5:00 local time after a violent storm. Witnesses told Italian news agency Ansa that Bayesian's anchor was down when the storm hit, causing the mast to break and the ship to lose balance and sink.
The yacht's sinking came on the same day it was confirmed that Lynch's co-defendant in the fraud case, Stephen Chamberlain, was killed in a car accident two days ago.
On Monday, special firefighters and rescue divers, trained to work in tight spaces, arrived at the scene from Rome and Sardinia, but the first search for the wreck about 50 meters below sea level failed.
The search operation continues today, Tuesday 20 August.
