Tech giant pursues legal action despite yacht tragedy

United States-based technology company Hewlett Packard Enterprises, also known as HPE, has confirmed it plans to continue legal action against the estate of British entrepreneur Mike Lynch, despite his death in a yachting accident last month.

Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter, and five others died after his boat, the Bayesian, went down in freak nighttime weather conditions off the coast of Sicily.

Investigations remain at an early stage, but local prosecutors have said that potentially, charges including manslaughter could be brought.

In June, Lynch, who was a scientific advisor to former United Kingdom prime minister David Cameron and who was described as "a titanic figure in the British tech industry" and an artificial intelligence pioneer, was cleared of fraud charges over the $11 billion sale of his software company Autonomy to HPE in 2011.

Reuters reported that shortly after the purchase was completed, a major internal accounting scandal was uncovered, and in 2022, HPE won a civil case against Lynch related to it.

When Lynch was cleared of the charges in June, he said: "I am elated with today's verdict and grateful to the jury for their attention to the facts over the last 10 weeks.

"I am looking forward to returning to the United Kingdom and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field."

HPE has declined to discuss its plans in detail, other than to issue a statement saying: "In 2022, an English high court judge ruled that HPE had substantially succeeded in its civil fraud claims against Dr Lynch and Mr (former company finance chief Sushovan) Hussain.

"A damages hearing was held in February 2024 and the judge's decision regarding damages due to HPE will arrive in due course. It is HPE's intention to follow the proceedings through to their conclusion."

It is understood Lynch's yachting trip was a thank you to friends who had stood by him during the trial, with some of them believed to have been on board when the yacht went down.

Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance, the firm that represented Lynch in his trial, was among the dead, as was his wife Neda Morvillo, and another senior partner from the company was rescued as the boat sank.

Jonathan Bloomer, the chairman of Morgan Stanley International bank, who was a defense witness in the trial, also died, along with his wife Judy.

In an interview he gave to The Times newspaper shortly after his acquittal and weeks before his death, Lynch said how the court's decision had given him "a second life: the question is: what do you want to do with it?".

By coincidence, Lynch's boat sank two days after Stephen Chamberlain, the Autonomy finance executive who was his co-defendant in the trial, also died, after being hit by a car while out jogging near his home in England.