Morgan Stanley International Bank Executive and Wife, British Tech Entrepreneur with Daughter Among Missing After Tragic Sinking of Luxury Yacht in Sicily, Italy

Morgan Stanley International Bank Chairman Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife, along with British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, are among those missing after their luxury yacht sank during a violent storm.

The British-flagged yacht, Bayesian, which was anchored near the port of Porticello, was carrying 22 people when it was struck by a tornado in the early hours of Monday morning, according to the Italian coastguard, People reported.

Salvatore Cocina, head of the civil protection agency in Sicily, confirmed that six people, including Bloomer and Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance, are currently unaccounted for.

Rescue operations have successfully saved 15 individuals from the wreckage.

One of the UK’s best-known tech entrepreneurs, Mike Lynch, is among those still missing after a luxury yatch sank off the coast of Sicily. https://t.co/qDi2adh1zv pic.twitter.com/s7nSqLJ6OL

— Financial Times (@FT) August 19, 2024

Among the survivors are Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares—who is the owner of the yacht—and a one-year-old girl who was rescued by her mother.

Tragically, one man, believed to be the yacht’s chef, was confirmed dead. The Italian coastguard revealed that the missing individuals have British, American, and Canadian nationalities.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that two New Zealanders were on board the yacht. Ayla Ronald, a New Zealand lawyer working at Clifford Chance in London on Lynch’s ongoing fraud case, was among the survivors.

Lynch is known as the co-founder of Autonomy, a prominent software firm in the UK tech industry that has been embroiled in legal battles over allegations of fraud related to its $11 billion sale to Hewlett-Packard, according to The Guardian.

Tragically, news of the yacht sinking coincided with reports that Stephen Chamberlain, Lynch’s co-defendant in an ongoing U.S. trial regarding the Autonomy sale, died after being struck by a car while running in England.

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