Prominent U.K. tech tycoon Mike Lynch, once considered the "British Bill Gates," is missing after the sinking of a superyacht off the coast of Italy on Monday.
The news comes just months after the entrepreneur was acquitted on fraud charges by a San Francisco jury, ending more than a decade of legal battles stemming from the sale of his company to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
Lynch, 59, earned a PhD from Cambridge before co-founding software firm Autonomy in 1996. Under his direction as chief executive, the company grew to become the largest tech firm in the U.K., and he became one of Britain's wealthiest men when he sold it for more than $11 billion to HP.
But shortly after the sale, Lynch was fired from his CEO position at Autonomy, and HP wrote down the company by $8.8 billion within a year, accusing Lynch of cooking the books to inflate its value.
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The U.S. and U.K. both launched investigations into the allegations, and the U.S. formally requested Lynch's extradition to the U.S. in 2019 to face several charges including securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy.
According to The Sunday Times, Lynch, who is married and has two daughters, ages 18 and 21, was extradited from Britain in May of last year and spent 13 months on house arrest in San Francisco while he awaited trial. He was acquitted on all 15 charges in June.
"I am elated with today's verdict," Lynch said in a statement following his acquittal. "I am looking forward to returning to the U.K. and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field."
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HP largely won a civil lawsuit against Lynch and another former Autonomy executive in London in 2022, though damages have not yet been decided. The company is seeking $4 billion. In a sit-down with The Times last month, Lynch said he plans to appeal that verdict.
On the news of Lynch going missing on Monday, the author of The Times piece, Danny Fortson, wrote on X, "I am reeling from this news about Mike Lynch. The terrible irony is that when we sat down last month, he made it clear that he felt he had won a new lease on life, that his acquittal in America gave him a ‘second life.’"
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Lynch is among six people, including two Americans, missing after the 184-foot British-flagged yacht Bayesian capsized and sank off Sicily in bad weather early Monday. At least one person died, and 15 people were rescued, including a 1-year-old girl, authorities said.
FOX News' Pilar Arias and Reuters contributed to this report.
