The 59-year-old businessman was acquitted in June by a San Francisco court after a decade-long legal battle with US firm Hewlett-Packard, but the allegations tarnished his image as a UK tech success story. Since returning home, Lynch – an adviser to two British prime ministers – had criticised the government for allowing his extradition to the US in the first place. “I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field,” he said following his acquittal.
But in a tragic twist, he would perish on the Mediterranean celebrating his victory on a cruise with his family and the friends who had helped him through the ordeal. Born to working-class Irish parents in Essex, east of London, in 1965, the academically bright Lynch won a scholarship to a private school. He went on to study natural sciences at Cambridge University, where he got a doctorate.
Lynch had described the fraud trial in the United States as a life-altering moment for him in an interview with the Times newspaper last month. “It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life. The question is, what do you want to do with it?” he said.
Lynch and his family were aboard his luxury yacht Bayesian near Palermo with friends and colleagues when it was struck by a sudden storm in the early hours of Monday. His wife, Angela Bacares, was among the 15 people rescued, but his daughter Hannah, 18, is still missing. Italian rescuers have now recovered five bod.