Once dubbed the ‘British Bill Gates’, Mike Lynch and his wife were valued at £852m in 2023

An inquest has begun into the deaths of tech tycoon Mike Lynch and three other British nationals after the superyacht Bayesian sank in Sicily last year.

The 59-year-old is known for founding technology investment firm Invoke Capital and Autonomy Corporation and was in the headlines after he was cleared of charges in a high-profile US fraud case in June 2024.

Mr Lynch was on the Bayesian superyacht, which sank in bad weather on 19 August 2024 near the Sicilian capital Palermo.

There were 12 guests and 10 crew on board - of whom 15 were rescued, including Mr Lynch’s wife.

Their daughter, Hannah, 18, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, and his wife Judy Bloomer, 71, all died following the sinking.

The others who died, in addition to the four British nationals, were US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo, and Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, who was working as a chef on the vessel.

Once dubbed the “British Bill Gates”, his death came just weeks after he was cleared of all charges by a US jury related to the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011. The boat trip was a celebration of his acquittal.

Mr Lynch founded Autonomy in 1996 using technology he developed as a Cambridge student. HP claimed, just a year after the sale, that Mr Lynch had used accounting tricks to artificially inflate its value before the sale.