The Saga of a Tech Exec’s Sunken Yacht Simply Acquired a Lot Extra Fascinating

A bit of over a month in the past, the 184-foot yacht belonging to tech millionaire Mike Lynch abruptly sank. The boat had been anchored off the coast of Sicily, the place it had been parked for an evening of partying, when an surprising “freak storm” got here up within the waters close by. Inside 16 minutes, the vessel went down. Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter, his lawyer, and several other others, all drowned consequently.

The tragic incident instantly impressed suspicion as a result of weird timing of the yacht’s sinking. Lynch and his fellow vacationers had been aboard the boat to rejoice Lynch’s current authorized victory: the tech govt had not too long ago been found not guilty in a decade-spanning fraud case that concerned a multi-billion greenback deal to promote his software program firm to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. After years of combating accusations of fraud associated to the deal, a U.S. courtroom had—solely two months earlier than the tragic boating incident—acquitted the tech govt of all expenses associated to the case.

Now, in a twist that’s certain to rankle conspiracy theorists, CNN reports that the yacht, often called the Bayesian, might comprise watertight safes that maintain “super-encrypted exhausting drives.” Lynch apparently didn’t belief cloud providers and, consequently, took encrypted drives with him at any time when he went crusing. These drives, in flip, might “comprise extremely delicate information tied to a variety of Western intelligence providers,” the outlet experiences, citing 4 sources conversant in the native police investigation.

To bolster this argument, CNN stresses Lynch’s high-level authorities connections, noting that he was “related to British, American and different intelligence providers by means of his numerous firms” (Lynch was concerned with the cybersecurity business, which frequently works hand in glove with authorities companies), and up to now, he served as an advisor to a number of British prime ministers, together with David Cameron and Theresa Could.

Authorities are actually attempting to grab and defend the sunken hard-drives. CNN experiences that police are stepping up safety and underwater surveillance across the sunken vessel, apparently fearing that it could be focused by international governments (Russia and China are each talked about).

It’s an exceedingly bizarre twist to a narrative that has already had loads of bizarre twists. Working example: Stephen Chamberlain, Lynch’s enterprise associate (and the co-defendant within the not too long ago concluded authorized proceedings), died the same day that Lynch’s boat sunk. Chamberlain had been struck by a automobile whereas jogging on August seventeenth and succumbed to his accidents two days later. Whereas this may occasionally sound like one thing straight out of Michael Clayton, it could additionally simply be a coincidence. The obvious driver of the automobile that hit Chamberlin is described as having been a 49-year-old girl who “remained on the scene” after police arrived.

Lynch’s software program firm, Autonomy, was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. When the deal went by means of, Lynch was serving as Autonomy’s CEO. Shortly after the deal went by means of, nonetheless, Lynch left the corporate, and the corporate’s operations rapidly unraveled. He was subsequently accused of inflating the worth of Autonomy within the interval earlier than it was bought to Hewlett-Packard. Lynch denied these expenses and maintained that HP bungled the operations of the corporate after it was bought. After years spent in courts combating the fees, an American courtroom in the end agreed with Lynch’s story.

Lynch’s lawyer, Chris Morvillo, who helped him win the case towards HP—additionally died, alongside along with his spouse, when the Bayesian sank. The couple had been celebrating the authorized victory alongside Lynch.