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
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Your support makes all the difference.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.
Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah were ‘part of a united, vibrant, loving family’
Family friends of Mike and Hannah Lynch have said the father and daughter were part of a “united, vibrant, loving family” – with the teenager remembered as a “diamond in a sea of stars” and the tech mogul as a brilliant storyteller.
Mr Lynch was the creator of software giant Autonomy and had been cleared in June of carrying out a massive fraud related to its 11 billion dollar (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.
His daughter Hannah had recently finished her A-levels and was due to study at Oxford University.
Sasha Murray, chief stewardess of the Bayesian, said: “Those who knew her will know that Hannah was a diamond in a sea of stars. Bright, beautiful and always shining.
“What most people may not have seen was the extraordinarily strong, deep and loving relationship she shared with her parents, whom she adored more than anything.
“While swimming with them she often said, if anything ever happened she would save them.
“I have no doubt that the Irish, Latina fire that burns in her soul kept that spirited determination alive.”
It is understood Ms Murray was rescued after disaster struck the yacht.
HP looking to recoup £4billion from Mike Lynch’s estate despite Bayesian tragedy
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is making the “difficult decision” to pursue Mike Lynch’s estate for £4billion in the interests of shareholders despite the tech billionaire being killed along with his daughter on the Bayesian superyacht.
Antonio Neri, the former engineer turned chief executive at HPE, told the Financial Times: “Obviously my job as a representative of shareholders is to make the difficult decisions.
“These are difficult decisions. But in the end, we are making decisions in the best interest of shareholders.”
Mike Lynch had been celebrating his acquittal from criminal charges on the superyacht when it overturned in a freak storm.
But HPE intends to pursue damages around an earlier UK civil trial in 2022 which found in favor of HPE’s claim that Lynch and ex-CFO Sushovan Hussain had inflated the apparent value of Autonomy during the acquisition.
Professor fears more deaths by ‘medicanes’ after Bayesian tragedy
Professor Yoav Yair, Dean of the School of Sustainability at Reichman University in Israel, told the Mirror that storms dubbed ‘medicanes’ - Mediterranean hurricanes - could cause similar sinkings like the Bayesian superyacht.
He said: “It is not a matter of if this (the Bayesian disaster) will happen again, but rather it’s when and where.
“In the last couple of years we have seen medicanes - which are a new phenomena. These are hurricane-like storms that pack a lot of energy, and create flash flooding, torrential rains, lightning, hail and severe sustained winds. The 2023 “Daniel” medicane destroyed Libya and caused over 30,000 deaths there.
“The sea surface temperature has risen globally and in the Med as well, charging the atmosphere with increased fluxes of water vapor, which means a higher potential for massive storms.”
Mike Lynch net worth: How the billionaire made his money
Mike Lynch was frequently described as the Bill Gates of Britain for founding Autonomy – one of the biggest software firms on the planet.
Mike Lynch net worth: How the billionaire made his money
Mike Lynch was frequently described as the Bill Gates of Britain for founding Autonomy – one of the biggest software firms on the planet
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.”
Bayesian captain said to be ‘living darkest days of his life’
Three crew members including the yacht’s captain are under investigation, with plans being discussed to raise the yacht from the ocean bed to assist enquiries.
Sources close to New Zealander James Cutfield, 51, the captain, told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that he is living through the darkest days of his life.
Among those killed were Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who had been due to begin studying at Oxford University in September, the yacht’s chef and four other family friends and associates.
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.
Bodies of Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah flown back to families after Bayesian superyacht sinking
Bodies of Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah flown back to families after Bayesian superyacht sinking
The bodies of those who died after the billionaire Mike Lynch’s Bayesian superyacht sunk off the coast of Sicily have been flown back to their families by private jet.
Italian publication Giornale di Sicilia reported post-mortem examinations were completed at a Palermo hospital and the bodies have now been returned.
My colleague Tom Watling reports:
Bodies of Mike Lynch and daughter flown back to UK after Bayesian tragedy
Italian media reports the bodies have been returned to their families via private jet
Former captain says surviving crewmembers all have PTSD from sinking
The former captain of the Bayesian superyacht says he has spoken to all of the surviving crew to hear their account of the sinking.
Stephen Edwards said all the crew members who were on deck rescued as many passengers as they could but that heading down towards the flooded lower parts of the yacht “would have meant certain death”.
The former captain told The Telegraph: “They are not doing very well”
“The dominant feeling is still one of shock from the event. They are dealing with what happened, how it happened and how quickly it happened.”
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.
