By Catarina Demony
LONDON (Reuters) – An intense storm sank a luxury yacht off Sicily’s coast on Monday, killing one man and leaving six missing, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter. Fifteen people escaped before the yacht sank.
Here are details about the missing passengers.
MIKE LYNCH AND DAUGHTER HANNAH
Tech entrepreneur Lynch built Britain’s biggest software company, Autonomy. Often dubbed Britain’s Bill Gates, the 59-year-old was lauded by shareholders, scientists and politicians when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011.
But in late 2012, HP said it had found a massive accounting scandal at the business, and wrote off $8.8 billion of its value. Lynch spent the next 12 years trying to clear his name and was acquitted on all criminal charges just weeks ago in the United States.
After the sale of Autonomy, Lynch founded Invoke Capital, a technology venture capital fund.
Lynch’s daughter Hannah, 18, is also missing. A Sunday Times profile of Lynch last month said Hannah was preparing to study English literature at the University of Oxford.
His wife, Angela Bacares, who owns the vessel, was also aboard it but was rescued.
JONATHAN BLOOMER AND WIFE JUDY BLOOMER
Jonathan Bloomer appeared as a character witness in Lynch’s legal case earlier this year. Bloomer has been non-executive chair of Morgan Stanley International since 2016, and is the chair of international specialist insurer, Hiscox.
He was also chief executive of insurance and investment company Prudential from 2000 to 2005.
He studied physics at London’s Imperial College in the 1970s, according to his LinkedIn profile.
One of Bloomer’s former employees wrote on LinkedIn he was “always a friendly, approachable and engaging man”.
Hiscox Chief Executive Aki Hussain said in a statement on Tuesday they were deeply shocked and saddened and their thoughts were with all those affected, in particular Bloomer and his wife Judy, who was also aboard the yacht.
Judy, who studied English language and literature at Homerton College in Cambridge, has worked as a psychotherapist for nearly 30 years, specialising in anxiety and stress. She started her career as a teacher.
CHRISTOPHER MORVILLO AND WIFE NEDA MORVILLO
American Christopher Morvillo, a partner at law firm Clifford Chance in New York City, was part of Lynch’s defence team, fighting a long legal battle to acquit his client. His first ever post on LinkedIn was around two months ago to celebrate the court victory.
“None of this would have been possible without your love and support,” Morvillo wrote to his family in the post, including his wife, Neda Morvillo.
Before joining Clifford Chance in November 2011, Morvillo worked as a principal at Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC, providing advice on white collar criminal defence and regulatory matters.
Morvillo, who studied law at Fordham University, also worked as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York between 1999 and 2005, assisting in the criminal investigation arising out of the Sept. 11 attacks.
David Oscar Markus, a criminal defence lawyer and podcast host, interviewed Morvillo last week. He wrote a blog describing him as a “superstar lawyer”.
“Chris dedicated over a decade of his career to obtaining justice for Mike Lynch,” Markus wrote. “He got it and then for this to happen…. it’s tough to find the right words.”
Morvillo’s wife, Neda, is the owner of a luxury jewellery line under her maiden name, Neda Nassiri. According to the company’s website, she has been designing and hand-crafting jewellery in New York for over two decades.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Additional reporting by Sachin Ravikumar, Andres Estebaran and Sam Tobin; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
