'BRITAIN'S Bill Gates' won a court fight after being flown to the US in chains - weeks before being caught in a yacht horror. Entrepreneur Mike Lynch, 59, and daughter Hannah, 18, are two of the four Brits still missing hours after the £14m luxury vessel Bayesian capsized in a tornado. 8 British technology tycoon Mike Lynch is missing after the luxury yacht, Bayesian sank in bad weather off the coast of Sicily Credit: PA 8 Lynch arrives at federal court in San Francisco, California, US, in March Credit: Getty 8 The 'Bayesian' sailing boat, in Palermo, Sicily Credit: EPA 8 Italian firefighters transport a body bag amid the search Credit: Reuters 8 It comes as - in a bizarre twist of fate - Lynch's former colleague and co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain died hours before after being hit by a car on Saturday.
The doomed boat sank off the coast of the Italian island Sicily at about 5am local time on Monday. A body found is understood to be that of vessel chef Ricardo Thomas, according to the BBC. Lynch's family, lawyers, and employees were on board when the boat when it sank, with witnesses describing the mast snapping in half.
They were celebrating the businessman's recent triumph over fraud charges that left him facing 25 years in a US prison, The Telegraph reported. The tech tycoon made his riches by selling his software company Autonomy to US computing giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011 for $11bn (£8.6bn).
But an intense legal battle following the high-profile acquisition loomed over Lynch for more than a decade, leading to him being flown to the US in chains last year. US Marshsals took Lynch into custody at Heathrow, bundling him on board a United Airlines flight after all other passengers had already boarded. He was extradited on fraud charges with a judge setting his bail at £79m before being acquitted by a jury in San Francisco earlier this year.
HOW LYNCH WON LEGAL BATTLE Lynch had a few things in his favour when the case came to trial. YACHT..
. Ryan Merrifield.
