The 5 Most Suspicious Things About Tech Billionaire Mike Lynch’s Capsized Yacht

On August 19, tech billionaire Mike Lynch died when his yacht capsized off the coast of Sicily after a heavy storm.

That same day, Stephen Chamberlain, Lynch’s business partner, was hit by a car while jogging miles away in an English village near Cambridge. He later died.

Lynch and Chamberlain were acquitted a month earlier in the same trial of fraud stemming from the 2011 sale of Autonomy, Lynch’s machine learning data analytics company, to Hewlett-Packard.

The mysterious circumstances surrounding their deaths, combined with the high status of the yacht’s occupants, have led to controversy and suspicion worldwide.

We delve deeper into some popular intrigues and discuss the most remarkable points from the strange story of Lynch’s death.

The unsinkable ship

The story almost writes itself: like the Titanicthe unsinkable ship… is sinking.

Lynch’s 56-meter luxury yacht, named Bayesianwas built by the Italian company Perini Navi, a subsidiary of the Italian Sea Group.

The Italian Naval Group has declared the sailing ships “unsinkable bodies”.

“We didn’t see it coming.”

However, the claims made by the group’s CEO, Giovanni Costantino, go much further than that. Costantino even went so far as to say that the incident “sounds like an incredible story, both technically and factually.”

“As a manufacturer of Perini (boats) I know very well how the boats have always been designed and built,” he continued, according to Sky News. “And because Perini is a sailing vessel … sailing vessels are known to be the safest ever.”

That sounds exactly like what a boat builder would say about his product. But to sink so quickly, most, including Costantino, suspect the ship must have been taking on water at an alarming rate.

Bad weather or bad captain?

“The Bayesian “was a model for many other ships because of its stability and exceptionally high performance,” Costantino told the BBC. “There was absolutely no problem with it.”

Unless, of course, something goes terribly wrong.

Costantino’s comments appeared to place responsibility on the ship’s captain, James Cutfield of New Zealand.

According to the manufacturer, before approaching the storm, the captain should have closed all openings, weighed anchor, started the engine and sailed into the wind.

This would have stabilised the ship and it would have sailed “comfortably” through the storm, he added.

But Costantino said a hatch or side entrance was likely left open, allowing water to flow in.

The spotlight has since focused on Cutfield, who survived the ordeal, along with his crew and select passengers. While the six most notable passengers all died, survivors include Charlotte Golunski, a co-founder with Lynch of the venture capital firm Invoke Capital, funded by proceeds from the sale of Autonomy, and Golunski’s 1-month-old daughter.

“We didn’t see it coming,” Cutfield told the media. It was an interesting statement, considering others certainly saw the storm coming.

The storm in question was initially described by local authorities as a waterspout, or mini-tornado, but later changed to a downburst, a weather phenomenon involving strong downward winds during a thunderstorm. The downburst results in damaging winds that spread in all directions.

Costantino noted that there was another sailing ship only 492 feet from the Bayesian which suffered no damage.

The Sir Robert Baden Powella Dutch ship built in 1957 somehow survived the same storm as Lynch’s modern yacht.

“A ship from those years cannot have the technology of the Bayesian,” Costantino said. “However, that ship suffered no damage. The crew had prepared it well for the storm. They even managed to provide assistance to the Bayesian.”

Costantino then pointed to local fishermen, suggesting that others were more cautious about the weather that day than Lynch’s crew.

One of the fishermen, Matteo Cannia, told the BBC he saw lightning, heard thunder and wind and decided to go home.

Another fisherman, Fabio Cefalu, had also planned to go that morning, but decided against it due to the weather conditions. He even went out to sea to save the day when the Bayesian shot off a rocket.

While prosecutors said they believed one person was standing guard in the Bayesian In the cockpit that night, a ship’s inspector told the BBC that two crew members had been forced to take turns on watch because of the storm warnings.

These mysterious events led prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio to tell reporters that there were many possible culprits, but that it could be “only the captain” or “the entire crew.”

The banker on board

Among the deceased were Morgan Stanley Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judith.

According to Sky News, the 70-year-old and his wife were on the boat to celebrate Lynch’s court victory.

The lawsuit centered on Lynch’s software company Autonomy, which was sold to Hewlett-Packard in 2011 for $11 billion. While it took less than a year for HP to write off more than $8 billion from Autonomy’s value, it took years for fraud scandals stemming from the sale to come to light, culminating in the 2018 conviction of Autonomy CFO Sushovan Hussain on fraud charges.

Lynch and Chamberlain, Autonomy’s vice chairman of finance, faced more than a dozen charges at trial but were acquitted in the summer of 2024. Read more about Autonomy here.

Bloomer was a prosecution witness in that trial, the Independent reported, adding that he also chaired Autonomy’s audit committee during the company’s sale to HP.

Lynch’s attorney Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda also died on the yacht.

Chamberlain died the same day

In a shocking turn of events, Lynch’s colleague Chamberlain was hit by a car and hospitalized while jogging in Cambridgeshire, England.

The incident occurred around 10 a.m. on the same day as the boat accident, which occurred several hours earlier.

The 52-year-old was running when he was hit by a Vauxhall Corsa driven by a 49-year-old woman. He was driving in an area where the speed limit is 96 kilometres per hour.

The coroner said a vehicle was seen carrying a jogger who crossed the road between two sections of a bridleway, the Telegraph reported. The car caused “serious injuries” to Chamberlain, who later died in hospital from a “traumatic head injury” after being put on life support.

Police appealed for witnesses, but no one came forward. The woman driving the car reportedly stayed at the scene and helped Chamberlain.

Chamberlain also used a fitness app that tracked his movements. Police were able to determine that he had run about six miles before he was struck and that his route had been mapped out in advance.

Chamberlain is also reportedly still on “administrative leave” due to his lawsuit at the company Darktrace, of which he was the CEO.

Darktrace’s intelligence tapes

After the controversial sale of Autonomy to HP, Lynch started a venture capital firm, Invoke Capital. His first major investment was in cyber intelligence company Darktrace.

“Darktrace was not just an investment; Invoke Capital team members with ties to intelligence agencies were deeply involved, along with other anonymous intelligence professionals,” said Return’s James Poulos.

According to the Daily Mail, Chamberlain and other Darktrace executives had close ties to both US and British intelligence.

‘The combination of Cambridge mathematics with the credibility of GCHQ and MI5 is unparalleled.’

Co-founder Stephen Huxter was a senior member of MI5’s cyber defence team. Huxter also installed Andrew France as CEO of Darktrace, a former employee of the UK Government Communications Headquarters.

Darktrace’s board of directors is also said to have included two senior intelligence officials from both sides of the Atlantic: former MI5 Director General Jonathan Evans and the NSA’s Jim Penrose, who rose to senior level at the defence intelligence agency.

Penrose also served as Executive Vice President of Cyber ​​Intelligence at Darktrace.

Darktrace didn’t exactly keep these connections a secret, even bragging about its ties to the intelligence agency in a 2015 interview with Wired.

“The combination of Cambridge mathematics with the credibility of GCHQ and MI5 is unmatched,” said Nicole Eagan, Darktrace’s CEO after leaving France.

When questions arose about Darktrace, the company was eventually accused of manipulating sales figures, misrepresenting revenues, and mismanaging expenses. The accusations mirrored those made against Autonomy during its sale to HP.

Darktrace shares subsequently fell more than 17%.

Venture capital firm Quintessential Capital Management even published a 70-page report that ended with the statement that it was “highly skeptical” about the “validity of Darktrace’s financial statements.”

Darktrace responded that the company had put in place “strict controls.”

After years of up-and-down stock prices, Darktrace rose 24% on the back of its AI-powered products. In April 2024, cyber-industry-focused private equity firm Thoma Bravo, the largest shareholder on the NASDAQ stock exchange, acquired the company for $5.3 billion, a deal that went through despite the controversy and fallout from the Lynch saga.

From the beginning of his career, Lynch has been suspected of having ties to national security services. His first company, Cambridge Neurodynamics, specialized in computer-based fingerprint recognition.

Lynch revealed to Wired in 2002 that he had worked with British intelligence through Cambridge Neurodynamics, saying that “they have the most interesting problems.”

Since Lynch’s death, HP has decided to continue legal action against his estate. As Reuters reported, HP filed the lawsuit against Lynch and the aforementioned CFO Hussain.

HP is seeking damages of more than $4 billion.