Bayesian superyacht sinking: Safes on tycoon Mike Lynch’s sunken boat ‘may contain intelligence service data’
Italian prosecutors continue their investigation after divers recovered video equipment from the luxury yacht
Your support helps us to tell the story
My recent work focusing on Latino voters in Arizona has shown me how crucial independent journalism is in giving voice to underrepresented communities.
Your support is what allows us to tell these stories, bringing attention to the issues that are often overlooked. Without your contributions, these voices might not be heard.
Every dollar you give helps us continue to shine a light on these critical issues in the run up to the election and beyond
Eric Garcia
Washington Bureau Chief
Divers searching British tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s sunken superyacht off Sicily have found safes holding potentially sensitive intelligence data, sources have claimed.
Local law enforcement reportedly now fear that foreign governments such as China and Russia may become interested in the boat - and have asked for extra surveillance to protect it, CNN reports.
Through Lynch’s companies, he was associated with multiple intelligence services - including British and American - particularly through his cyber security company, Darktrace.
The Bayesian boat is believed to have watertight safes with two super-encrypted hard drives containing confidential intelligence information, an official within the recovery team told the US new outlet.
Lying at a 50-metre depth, the wreckage is expected to be raised in the following weeks as part of a criminal investigation into its sinking on 19 August.
Francesco Venuto, of the Sicilian Civil Protection Agency, told CNN: “A formal request has been accepted and implemented for additional security of the wreckage until it can be raised.”
Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among eight people to die when the yacht sank last month.
Four victims found with carbon dioxide in lungs
Tech billionaire Mike Lynch, his daughter Hannah, 18, and five other people died when the Bayesian went down in a downburst, which is similar to a small tornado.
Chef Recaldo Thomas, Jonathan Bloomer, the Morgan Stanley International bank chairman, his wife Judy, and Chris Morvillo, a Clifford Chance lawyer, and his wife Neda, were the other victims of the August 19 tragedy.
Four of the victims are feared to have suffocated to death in air bubbles that filled with carbon dioxide, according to their autopsies raising the frightening possibility that they may have been conscious after the yacht sank, according to Italian news outlet La Republica.
Fifteen people, including Angela Bacares, Lynch’s wife, survived when they were rescued by a nearby yacht.
The deadly waterspouts thought to have caused Sicily boat tragedy
In Italy waterspouts can involve winds of up to 200 kilometres (124 miles) per hour, while downbursts can produce gusts of around 150 km per hour.
Statistics show that downbursts are becoming more frequent around the country, which Mercalli said may be connected to global warming.
Storms and heavy rainfall have swept down Italy in recent days after weeks of scorching heat.
“The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), which is almost 3 degrees more than normal. This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms,” Italian climatologist Luca Mercall said.
“So we can’t say that this is all due to climate change, but we can say that it has an amplifying effect.”
A similar freak storm killed four people, when their tourist boat sank on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy in May last year.
The country’s varied geology makes it prone to floods and landslides, while the fact it is flanked by rapidly warming seas means it is vulnerable to increasingly powerful storms.
Seven key unanswered questions around the sinking of the Bayesian
With the Bayesian lying on her side 50 metres underneath the now gentle waters of the Mediterranean, mystery still surrounds how the 56-metre superyacht, sank in the typhoon off the port of Porticello.
Remotely controlled underwater vehicles and cave divers are looking to raise the yacht, which experts will examine in the coming days.
The key unanswered questions around the tragic sinking of the Bayesian
With the search continuing of the sunken Bayesian an investigation has been launched to establish what caused the disaster off the coast of Sicily
Work to recover the superyacht begins with 200m red zone established off Porticello
TMC Marine, a company specialising in “planning and executing high-risk maritime operations and investigating and resolving serious maritime incidents and disputes” have arrived in Porticello.
The delicate operation could cost as much as £15 million to raise the Bayesian superyacht will require barges with cranes as the locals complain about the impact.
“When will the recovery be carried out?” one fisherman asked workers according to La Repubblica.
“For us,” added another, “it is better that these operations end as soon as possible.”
He pointed towards a 200m radius which is still forbidden to sail on and is constantly monitored by the coast guard.
“The community is preparing for the feast of the Madonna del Lume,” added a nearby bar worker referencing an upcoming October holiday.
“That day the painting of the Madonna, symbol of the village, will be carried out of the church, passing through the hands of the faithful, and then hundreds of boats will pour into the sea.”
Mike Lynch’s co-defendant died from head injury after being hit by car days before yacht sinking
Mike Lynch’s co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain died in hospital three days after being hit by a car on a country road, an inquest heard.
The 52-year-old, from Longstanton in south Cambridgeshire, was struck by a blue Vauxhall Corsa travelling between Stretham and Wicken on the A1123 at about 10.10am on 17 August.
Mr Chamberlain, a former vice president of finance at Mike Lynch’s software firm Autonomy, had been out running at the time, his lawyer Gary Lincenberg said.
Coroner Caroline Jones told the inquest in Alconbury that his medical cause of death was recorded as “traumatic head injury”.
Investigators hope to recover data on sinking of Bayesian
Navy divers recovered hard drives of the video surveillance system on board the Bayesian hopefully revealing the final moments before the tragic sinking of the superyacht.
In the engine room there were the hard disks that catalogued the parameters regarding the electric and thermal propulsion.
“We hope to be able to read something from the media”, an investigator told La Repubblica. They added “Unfortunately they are standard models that are not resistant to water and pressure”.
There was no black box on board the 700-tonne sailing vessel that sank in minutes. It was not required to have one, as it was not a commercial cruise ship.
Darktrace set to leave London Stock Exchange at end of September
Darktrace shares are set to stop trading publicly at the end of September, after the company set a timetable for its blockbuster private equity takeover to be completed.
The private equity group Thoma Bravo struck an almost 5.31 billion dollar (£4.3 billion) deal to buy Darktrace, co-founded by Mike Lynch, in April.
It marks one of the biggest take-private deals for a London-listed company in recent years, and will see Darktrace leave the FTSE 100 on October 1.
Founded in 2013, Cambridge-based Darktrace is a cybersecurity firm best known for using artificial intelligence to scan for hacks and data leaks inside IT networks.
The update comes after Poppy Gustafsson stepped down as chief executive earlier in September amid the takeover.
Ms Gustafsson helped to set up the Cambridge-based company in 2013 alongside Autonomy founder Mike Lynch.
Mr Lynch, and his daughter Hannah, were among seven people to die after the Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily last month.
‘Mike Lynch files may be target for hostile spy agencies’
Divers are searching the sea floor for Mike Lynch’s high-tech hard drives before they can fall into enemy hands reports La Repubblica - Italy’s second-biggest newspaper.
Sources told the paper the disks held: “the great digital archive of the IT entrepreneur whose clients included the British MI5, the American NSA and the Israeli services”.
The Italian newspaper said the “super drives” are protected by “cutting-edge encryption”.
The Sun reported the drives now could be a target for the hostile spy agencies of Russia, China, and Iran as they seek to steal valuable secrets.
Mike Lynch had ties to spy chiefs and intelligence agencies
A report has emerged classified intelligence information possibly sitting 50 metres deep in the Bayesian superyacht.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who died in the sunken yacht, was known to have links with intelligence services around the world, including British and American.
This link partly came from his cybersecurity firm Darktrace, which he founded in 2011 in partnership with former UK intelligence officials, Politico report.
Co-founder Stephen Huxter became managing director of the company. He previously ranked highly in MI5’s cyber defense team.
Darktrace is used to fight off cyberattacks, by learning the behavioural patterns of actors in an organisation and detecting any unusual activity.
Former MI5 chief Jonathan Evans sat on the company onboard, and Jim Penrose, who worked on the US National Security Agency, led the company’s operation in America.
A number of other intelligence figures were also involved. with Darktrace.
Lynch also had other ventures which were linked with spy agencies. Cambridge Neurodynamics, a company specialising in fingerprint recognition for computers, was contracted by UK intelligence services.
Bayesian yacht may contain safes with confidential intelligence data, sources say
Divers have requested heightened security after finding watertight safes which may contain highly classified information, sources told CNN.
Authorities confirmed that they are seeking heightened security, with sources suggesting confidential intelligence information on the boat may be of interest to Russia and China.
An official working with the team salvaging the boat said the vessel is believed to contain watertight safes with two super-encrypted hard drives, CNN reports.
Francesco Venuto of the Sicilian Civil Protection Agency told CNN: “A formal request has been accepted and implemented for additional security of the wreckage until it can be raised.”
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.