Boatbuilder behind Mike Lynch’s ill-fated superyacht ‘seeking £186million from his widow and crew’ over ‘reputational damage’

A lawyer for the boat builder who built Mike Lynch’s ill-fated superyacht, which sank last month, killing him and six others including his 18-year-old daughter, has filed a lawsuit seeking £186 million from his widow and crew.

Seven people died when the Bayesian, a £30 million superyacht owned by the founder of Darktrace, sank in just 16 minutes after being hit by a torrential downpour in Porticello, Sicily, last month.

Lynch, 59, and his 18-year-old daughter were killed, along with Morgan Stanley International President Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judith, as well as New York attorney Chris Morvillo and his partner Neda and chef Recaldo Thomas.

The lawsuit, filed in a Sicilian court on Friday and first reported by Italian newspaper La Nazione, alleges that the shipwreck has caused massive reputational damage and loss of revenue for the manufacturer Italian Sea Group (IGS).

While the “scandalous” move is said to have angered Lynch’s family, IGS reported that the lawyer who filed the lawsuit, Tommaso Bertuccelli, was not “authorized” to do so and had been ordered to immediately withdraw the lawsuit.

A handout photo provided by the Perini Navi Press Office on August 19, 2024 shows the ‘Bayesian’ sailboat in Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Seven people died after the sinking of the Bayesian on August 19

Mike Lynch (pictured, right) tragically passed away along with his daughter Hannah (pictured, left)

The company said: ‘The Italian Sea Group… strongly denies the allegations published in La Nazione regarding a legal procedure following the Bayesian tragedy. Although TISG has given a general mandate to the lawyers mentioned in the article, no legal representative of the company has examined, signed or authorised a summons.’

Court documents show the ship’s captain, James Cutfield, two other crew members, Camper & Nicholsons, the yacht management company that hired the crew, and Revtom, the Isle of Man company that owns the Bayesian, which is managed by Lynch’s widow, Angela Bacares, a survivor of the Porticello sinking.

A source close to the family told the Times: ‘Italy’s Sea Group should be ashamed. [IGS CEO] Giovanni Costantino is a disgrace, desperate to shift blame. He rushed to the media before all the bodies were even recovered, showing his lack of decency. Now it looks like he wants to sue his own clients.

MailOnline has contacted Tommaso Bertuccelli for comment.

The trial comes less than a month after Italian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into the shipwreck.

“We are still at the initial stages of the investigation. We cannot rule out any developments at this stage,” Termini Imerese prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said at the time.

Divers searched the wreck of the yacht last month. Shocking medical findings showed that the six victims of the disaster, whose bodies were recovered from the yacht, had no water in their lungs, suggesting the cause of death was asphyxiation due to a lack of oxygen.

Before his death at age 59, Mike was embroiled in a transatlantic fraud case, the result of the 2011 sale of his technology group, Autonomy, in which the buyer, HPE, alleged that “accounting irregularities” had led Lynch and his associates to fraudulently inflate the price

Hannah was set to attend Oxford University before her life was tragically cut short

The ship’s captain, 51-year-old New Zealander Cutfield, is one of three people being investigated by authorities following last month’s tragedy.

Chief Engineer Tim Parker Eaton, 56, and Matthew Griffiths, 22, are both British and, like the captain, are both also being investigated for their alleged involvement in the deaths of the seven people on board the Bayesian.

Mr Parker Eaton, 56, told prosecutors he had followed procedures and made sure everything was watertight when the storm swallowed the yacht.

Excerpts from Mr Parker Eaton’s statement, leaked to Italian media, show that he insisted that all doors and openings on the yacht be closed.

The other two crew members have not yet made any public comment.

The bodies of the seven dead have now been repatriated from Sicily.

Autopsies have been conducted on the victims in Sicily in recent days. Preliminary results suggest that all but one were trapped below deck when they died.

Autopsies performed on victims at Palermo’s Policlinico hospital earlier this month found no water in their lungs, Italian media reported, reinforcing fears they may have been conscious when the yacht sank.

Although their bodies have since been returned home, doctors in Palermo are still investigating whether they died from drowning or from a lack of oxygen in the cabin.