Heartache for Bayesian yacht victim Mike Lynch’s family – estate faces bankruptcy after court demands it hand over £700M

IT was a tragedy that claimed the lives of a billionaire father and his daughter, drowned in a storm at sea.

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was out celebrating his acquittal from US fraud charges when his £38million yacht Bayesian was knocked sideways by a sudden 80mph gust and started taking in water.

PAMike Lynch and daughter Hannah drowned at sea while out on his £38million yacht Bayesian[/caption]

Mike’s wife Angela Bacares was pulled to safety by a crew member

PAThe Bayesian disaster claimed the lives of seven people last August[/caption]

As the boat sank rapidly, his wife Angela Bacares was pulled to safety by a crew member — but Lynch, their 18-year-old daughter Hannah and five others on board never made it out.

Now, as the one-year anniversary approaches next month, 58-year-old businesswoman Angela is facing a financial battle.

There is the potential of court action by the families of the victims who died on the yacht — and earlier this week, the UK’s High Court ruled that her husband’s estate owes US tech giant Hewlett-Packard more than £700million relating to fraud claims.

The case was brought six years ago by HP after they acquired his company Autonomy in 2011.

The firm claimed Lynch and the former chief financial officer had fraudulently inflated its value.

While Lynch was facing court action in America, HP was already chasing him through the civil courts in Britain — leading to this week’s damages ruling.

The High Court ruled that HP had paid a lot more than it would have done “had Autonomy’s true financial position been correctly presented” during the sale.

If his estate — which goes to Angela and her remaining daughter Esme, 22 — ends up having to pay, it will almost certainly be bankrupted, leaving no inheritance for the family.

It is believed Lynch shielded his wife’s personal fortune from the messy court cases.

She owned millions of pounds worth of shares held in her name in other family firms.

And she made more than £15million from the sale of her shares when Autonomy was taken over.

One pal told us: “Mike wasn’t perfect but he wasn’t a criminal in any way, shape or form.

He had asked various Cabinet ministers and Prime Ministers, including Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson, to help him.

“Rishi and Johnson were more interested in making post-Brexit trade deals than making any trouble on Mike’s behalf.

“These cases hung over him for years and he ended up under house arrest in San Francisco unable to leave for months, facing charges that he was ultimately cleared of.

“He helped a lot of people make a lot of money but they assumed he was guilty as charged and then ran a million miles.

“He was abandoned by his peer group and by his government then, when he won his US case, everyone wanted to be his friend again.

“The irony is he had gone out on the Bayesian to celebrate the US court outcome.

“It’s been one tragedy after another for his family.”

The latest damages ruling had been delayed until this week because of the circumstances surrounding the yachting disaster on August 19 last year.

The judge expressed his “sorrow at the devastating turn of events” at sea and offered “sympathy and deepest condolences”.

‘STILL GRIEVING’

He even said that he “admired” Lynch, despite ruling against him.

Insiders have told The Sun that the family want to appeal the High Court decision.

Our source said: “It’s not just about money, it’s about restoring Mike’s reputation.

“The family are considering their next move but we all know that appealing these sorts of decisions is lengthy and costly.

“They are also still grieving their loss.”

Lynch created software company Autonomy, which processed people’s information and data, in 1996.

He sold it to Hewlett-Packard for £8.6billion in 2011.

The businessman reportedly netted around £500million from the deal before going on to set up tech investment firm Invoke Capital.

Just a year after the mega-bucks deal, HP wrote down Autonomy’s value by £6.5billion and brought a £4billion lawsuit against Lynch and ex-finance officer Sushovan Hussain.

The allegations that they inflated the value of the company were investigated by the UK Serious Fraud Office too, who found “insufficient evidence” of wrongdoing — but some aspects of the case were then handed over to US authorities.

In 2018, Lynch and Autonomy’s former vice-president of finance Stephen Chamberlain were charged with fraud in the US and accused of making false and misleading statements about their company.

But both were acquitted following a sensational three-month trial in San Francisco, where Lynch had been extradited to in 2023.

If Lynch had been found guilty, he would have faced up to 25 years in prison.

Darren FletcherHannah was just 18 when she tragically died on the Bayesian[/caption]

He told reporters last year that given his poor health, he would have almost certainly died in jail.

The pair were still celebrating their win when Chamberlain, 52, died after being hit by a car while out running near his home in Cambridgeshire.

Two days later, the Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily, claiming the lives of Lynch, Hannah, the vessel’s cook Recaldo Thomas, high-profile US lawyer Chris Morvillo, his wife Neda and British banking couple Jonathan and Judy Bloomer.

As part of a criminal investigation by Italian authorities, the yacht was raised from the sea bed last month.

That inquiry may not conclude until 2027, bringing more heartache for the Lynch family.

James Healy-Pratt, a US lawyer representing the family of chef Recaldo, said they would push for compensation from Angela, the crew and yacht management company Camper & Nicholsons.

As one of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs, Lynch had a life of luxury, enjoying exotic holidays and a £6milliion country mansion in Suffolk, which boasts 2,500 acres.

The close family are said to have loved spending time at home, breeding rare livestock, including Suffolk sheep and Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, which roamed free in the estate’s woodland.

But the businessman came from humble beginnings.

Born to Irish parents — a firefighter father and nurse mother — Lynch won a scholarship to a private school in Essex.

Mike worked hard but was very much a family man and wanted to make life as normal for his children as it could be, given the extreme wealth

Andrew Kanter

He went on to gain a PhD in mathematical computing from Cambridge University.

A friend said: “He really was a genius.

“He was just a brilliant mathematician and his life transformed as he built companies.

“He was a very early advocate of artificial intelligence — the very field in which we need expertise in this country.”

Long-time friend Andrew Kanter, who was a pallbearer at Lynch’s funeral, said: “He was never happier than when someone asked to see the pigs on his estate.

“Mike worked hard but was very much a family man and wanted to make life as normal for his children as it could be, given the extreme wealth.

“He never let his legal issues get in the way and did everything to make sure his kids grew up untroubled by whatever the world lay at his feet.”

“I truly believe that Mike would have looked at the UK ruling as a good day.

“Although the numbers are crazy, even the judge has found that Hewlett-Packard had overstated its claim.

“Mike would have continued to fight this.

“He always argued that a law that allows America to extradite British citizens and not have a return agreement was really flawed.

“It’s been the case for 15 years and he was going to have that fight too.

“The legal issues weighed heavily on him but he never let it affect his family.

“I never saw him sitting around self-pitying. He wanted to clear his name.

“The loss of Mike is an incalculable loss for technology.

“He was utterly devoted to its growth in Britain.”

ugpixDivers at the wreck of the yacht[/caption]