Tech magnate and Morgan Stanley executive among 6 individuals missing after superyacht sinks

The chairman of Morgan Stanley International and a British technology entrepreneur are among six people still missing 24 hours after a superyacht sank just half a mile off the coast of Sicily.

Jonathan Bloomer, who has chaired the U.S. bank’s London-based international arm since 2016, is feared drowned, along with his wife, and tech magnate Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.

Morvillo represented Lynch during his 12-week criminal trial in a federal court in New York earlier this year, which ended in his acquittal.

Lynch, who has been the CEO of software firm Autonomy, had been accused of deceiving Hewlett Packard (HP) about the company’s financial health prior to its 2011 acquisition for $11.7 billion.

Coincidentally Lynch’s co-defendant in that trial, Stephen Chamberlain, 52, was killed on Aug. 17 when he was hit by a car while out running near his home in Cambridgeshire, England.

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Lynch founded Autonomy in 1996, and it became one of the biggest software firms in the world.

He was described at one point as the “Bill Gates of Britain.”

When he sold the company to HP, he made a personal profit of $800 million.

Lynch was then accused of orchestrated a fraud and conspiracy leading up to the deal, which led to a 13-year legal saga from which he finally emerged unscathed in June this year.

It is thought Lynch, his family and friends were celebrating his acquittal with the holiday on board the Bayesian.

Divers are now searching the wreck of the 160-foot Bayesian, which sank after apparently being capsized by a waterspout off the coast of Palermo in the early hours of Tuesday.

The superyacht, which was reportedly owned by Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares—who survived—was carrying 22 people and was anchored within sight of the shore when the incident happened.

Fifteen people were rescued from the water, including a one-year-old child, and the body of a crew member, chef Ricardo Thomas, was later recovered.

She said: “I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning.”

“It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others,” she said.

The wreck of the Bayesian is now on the seabed, about 150 feet down, and Salvatore Cocina, head of civil protection in Sicily, said, “The fear is that the bodies got trapped inside the vessel.”

Marco Tilotta, a diver with Palermo’s fire department, said, “The biggest difficulty we have is due to the depth, which does not allow long times of intervention. ”We plan … to search centimeter by centimeter.”

Tilotta said the vessel was intact and was lying on its starboard side.

Prosecutors in the town of Termini Imerese have opened an investigation into the incident.

British Investigators to Carry Out ‘Preliminary Assessment’

The British government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch has sent four inspectors to Sicily to conduct a “preliminary assessment.”

It is understood that it is standard practice for a large boat like the Bayesian to weigh anchor in open waters during stormy weather rather than attempting to come into port.

Southern Italy has been swept by storms and heavy rainfall in recent days, after weeks of sunshine and high temperatures.

Meteorologist Luca Mercalli said, “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.”

A spokesman for Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said on Monday, “We are in contact with the local authorities following an incident in Sicily, and stand ready to provide consular support to British nationals affected.”

Associated Press, PA Media and Reuters contributed to this report.