He is considered the “British Bill Gates” and the eccentric businessman almost ended up in prison in the USA on fraud charges: Now the story of Mike Lynch has taken its most dramatic turn yet.
British businessman Mike Lynch said he had been given a second life after his acquittal in the USA. Just three weeks later, he went missing after a serious shipping accident off the coast of Sicily.
A little over two months ago, Mike Lynch experienced a small miracle. The British tech billionaire had to answer to an American federal court in San Francisco on charges of fraud and accounting fraud in connection with the sale of his company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. The 59-year-old father of two daughters faced a prison sentence of 25 years. Given his lung disease, the chances of Lynch surviving a prison sentence and living a carefree life in freedom were slim.
In the USA, only a fraction of criminal cases tried in federal court end in the defendant’s favor. But to the surprise of most observers, the jury acquitted Lynch of all charges in June. The tech pioneer was able to remove the electronic ankle bracelets and received his $100 million bail back.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Lynch compared the extradition from Britain to the USA and the trial there a few weeks ago to a near-death experience. “I had to say goodbye to everything and everyone, I didn’t think I would ever come back,” he explained. “It’s bizarre, but I have a second life now. The question is, what do you want to do with it?”
Three weeks later, Mike Lynch is missing after a serious shipping accident on the night of Monday off the coast of Sicily.
Illustrious guests on the luxury yacht
The tech billionaire had been on board the luxury yacht “Bayesian,” which capsized near Palermo after a storm with torrential rain. According to the Italian coast guard, there were twelve passengers and ten crew members on board. Fifteen people were rescued. At least one person – apparently the ship’s cook – died. Six others – including Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter – were still missing on Tuesday.
The luxury yacht belonged to Lynch’s wife, who was rescued and taken to a hospital. According to media reports, the tech billionaire’s guests included Chris Morvillo of the London law firm Clifford Chance and Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley Bank International, and his wife.
The illustrious traveling group shows that Lynch moved in circles in which private friendships and business interests easily merged. At the same time, the tragic accident also reflects Lynch’s life, which was like a rollercoaster ride from the very beginning.
A founder from Cambridge
Lynch was born in Ireland in 1965 to a fireman and a nurse, but the family emigrated to Chelmsford in Essex, outside London, shortly afterwards. Lynch’s father discouraged him from pursuing a career as a fireman and “running into burning buildings.”
Instead, he chose an academic path that was not predestined for a child of Irish descent from a humble background. But Lynch was a hard-working student with a strong talent for science. He won a scholarship to a private school in north-east London and later a place at the elite University of Cambridge, where he studied mathematics and biochemistry.
Lynch quickly developed an interest in technology and artificial intelligence. He completed a doctorate in the field of adaptive pattern recognition, which enables machines to identify recurring structures in data sets. In 1991, he tried to put his findings into practice by founding start-ups: This led to the creation of the company Cambridge Neurodynamics, which specialized in computer-based fingerprint recognition and sold this technology to police forces.
Five years later, Cambridge Neurodynamics became the company Autonomy – Lynch’s life’s work, but also the reason for his later legal difficulties. The company’s core product was able to evaluate so-called unstructured data, which is not contained in neat tables, but in emails, videos and audio recordings.
British success story
Autonomy was a British success story: The company was founded in Cambridge, and after its IPO in London it quickly rose to become one of the 100 largest British companies (FTSE 100) and did not have to shy away from comparison with its competitors from Silicon Valley.
Lynch was celebrated by the media as the “British Bill Gates” and rose to the highest echelons of society. He became science adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron, was appointed to the board of directors of the BBC and was awarded an Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.
But Lynch was also known for his eccentric side. He left his mark on the companies he ran without compromise. He named meeting rooms after villains from James Bond films and had a large aquarium with flesh-eating piranhas set up in the entrance area of Autonomy. In his private life, Lynch had a reputation for being a loving father who built model trains and raised carp in his free time.
Legal dispute after company sale
The supposed high point of Lynch’s career in 2011 also marked the beginning of a legal battle of attrition that would last for years. The American company Hewlett-Packard (HP) bought the company Autonomy for 11 billion dollars. Barely a year later, HP wrote off 8.8 billion dollars of the company’s value – and accused those responsible for Autonomy of having committed serious accounting irregularities and made false statements.
The rift resulted in a years-long legal battle that led to civil lawsuits in the UK and criminal charges in the US. Autonomy’s former CFO, Sushovan Hussain, was sentenced to five years in prison in the US in 2018 for fraud in connection with the sale of the company to HP.
In 2022, a British judge concluded that Lynch must have known about his CFO’s conduct and owed HP damages. The judge has yet to determine the amount. However, Lynch recently told the Sunday Times that after his acquittal in the US and the return of his personal freedom, this no longer caused him any discomfort.
Sitting next to Lynch in the dock in California was Stephen Chamberlain. The former deputy chief financial officer of Autonomy was also acquitted of all charges. In the incredible story of Mike Lynch, it seems like a particularly macabre coincidence that Chamberlain was killed in a traffic accident in the British county of Cambridgeshire on Saturday. A 49-year-old woman hit Chamberlain as he was jogging with her car – just a few hours before Lynch’s luxury yacht sank in the waters of the Mediterranean.