The Bayesian, a 184-foot luxury yacht, sank off the coast of Sicily early Monday morning. Rough storms and a tornado likely sank the boat, killing one and leaving six missing. Among those missing is tech billionaire Mike Lynch, who recently escaped a fraud conviction. Coincidentally, a driver hit Lynch’s co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain only days before Lynch went missing. CNN reports that Chamberlain has since died.
Chamberlain was reportedly hit while out for a run. The driver stayed at the scene and has been cooperating with police. Details of the crash are still scarce, with reports really only revealing that he was taken to the hospital with serious injuries and eventually passed away.
Both Lynch and Chamberlain were accused of fraud after selling Autonomous, a software company, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion back in 2011. Allegedly, they worked to inflate the value of the company ahead of the sale by inflating revenue. The two were charged with one count of conspiracy and 14 counts of wire fraud each. The jury acquitted them of all charges in June.
“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity. We deeply miss him. Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family,” Chamberlain’s lawyer told CNN.
The timing of Lynch going missing and his co-defendant being hit by a car, of course, has people jumping to conclusions that the two events may be connected. It would certainly make for an interesting plot point in a Jason Bourne movie, but it’s also hard to imagine that, even if Hewlett-Packard wanted to take them out, they’d use a 49-year-old woman who then stayed at the scene of the crash. It’s even harder to believe that HP has some kind of weather machine that allows it to spin up waterspouts at will. Unless HP actually does have a weather machine…
