An American entrepreneur linked to a billionaire who went missing after his superyacht sank has revealed a chilling theory about why the yacht sank.
Scott Painter, who took over the Autonomy brand from Mike Lynch, says the Bayesian vessel may have been more vulnerable to capsizing in bad weather because of the height of its mast.
Painter, who lives in the US, told DailyMail.com that the Bayesian had “an unusually large mast for a sloop” (a ship with one mast)
“The mast was the ultimate bragging right for sailors,” Painter told DailyMail.com. “That mast must have been over 240 feet high, which is the tallest or second tallest in the world.
Entrepreneur Scott Painter, who took over Mike Lynch’s former business software company Autonomy, said family and friends were desperately trying to reach him amid fears he may have been one of the 15 passengers aboard the superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily.
At least one person has died and six are still missing, including tech magnate Mike Lynch, after a tornado hit the coast of Porticello near Palermo, Italy, where the superyacht Bayesian was moored.
He added: ‘That could definitely contribute to a capsize, because it would destabilise the yacht. And if it heeled too far, the yacht could absolutely capsize.’
Painter says he received panicked phone calls from family and friends who feared he was on the ship. He was glad to reassure them that he was OK.
Tragically, at least one person died Monday morning when the ship sank during a storm off the coast of Palermo, Sicily. Six people, including Lynch, are still missing.
Painter, CEO of the largest EV subscription company in the U.S., which operates under the Autonomy brand, said he was shocked and saddened by the news of Lynch’s disappearance.
Lynch, one of the UK’s richest men with an estimated fortune of £852 million ($1.1 billion), remains missing, as does his 18-year-old daughter.
Tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, often referred to as the ‘British Bill Gates’, was on holiday with his family when disaster struck and a ‘freak’ waterspout sank his luxury boat
A handout photo provided by the Perini Navi Press Office on August 19, 2024 shows the ‘Bayesian’ sailboat in Palermo, Sicily, Italy
His wife, Angela Bacares, was rescued and is recovering from her injuries.
The Bayesian had 10 crew members on board: Lynch, his wife and daughter Hannah, and nine other guests.
“We are praying for positive news,” Painter told DailyMail.com exclusively. “Mike is a legend and the loss of him and his daughter would be truly tragic.”
The ship was spotted on the seabed, 50 meters below the Sicilian coast.
Six of the passengers, including four Britons and two unnamed Americans, are still missing. Some in the tech community initially feared that Painter was also on board the ill-fated plane.
The body of the boat’s cook, Canadian Ricardo Thomas, was found floating next to the vessel earlier today.
British mother Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old baby Sofia were reportedly among those rescued by a nearby sailing boat.
The Bayesian had ten crew members on board: Lynch, his wife and daughter Hannah, and nine other guests.
Lynch, 59, often referred to as the “British Bill Gates”, sold his British business software company Autonomy to US technology giant Hewlett-Packard in 2011 for $11 billion.
But the deal went south after he was accused of manipulating the books to close the sale. Lynch was fired by HP’s then-CEO Meg Whitman, sparking a decade-long legal battle.
British company Micro Focus acquired part of the remaining assets of HP, which had bought Autonomy in 2011.
Painter, founder of car retailer TrueCar, and entrepreneur Georg Bauer acquired the Autonomy brand and associated intellectual property rights from education agency Micro Focus in 2021.
Painter founded a company focused on fully electric vehicle subscriptions and kept the Autonomy name.
He has since launched a new company called Autonomy Data Services, which provides a software platform that allows automakers to offer their own subscription services for electric, gas, new and even used cars, according to TechCrunch.com.
Georg Bauer, the president and chairman of Autonomy, was not on board the ill-fated superyacht
When news of Lynch’s boat sinking in Sicily made international headlines, Painter said his friends and family became concerned that he was one of the passengers on the luxury yacht.
Painter confirmed that Bauer, Autonomy’s president and chairman, was also not present on the Bayesian luxury yacht.
“Mr Bauer is safe in Munich and he wasn’t involved at all,” Painter told DailyMail.com. “It’s pretty crazy news. That boat was exceptional. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Lynch and his family and friends enjoyed their trip to the Italian coast just two months after he was acquitted of fraud and conspiracy charges in connection with the multibillion-dollar deal with HP.
The tech giant was extradited from the United Kingdom in March to face charges in federal court in San Francisco.
Prosecutors allege he committed a massive fraud against HP in connection with its 2011 acquisition of Autonomy, a software company Lynch founded in 1996 and later led as CEO in Britain.
Tech magnate and married father of two, Mr Lynch, is pictured here with his wife Angela, who was rescued on Monday
Divers are scouring the sea for the missing person at the site where the superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19
Prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses at Lynch’s criminal trial in an attempt to provide evidence to support allegations that he manipulated accounting records and extorted billions of dollars from HP.
Lynch denied the allegations and said he was being made a scapegoat for HP, a claim he repeated when testifying during the 11-week criminal trial.
Lynch faced up to 25 years in prison if found guilty, but on June 6, the jury acquitted the tech mogul of all 15 charges.
The father-of-two returned to the UK shortly after the trial and said he was grateful to have been given a “second life”.
In his first newspaper interview he told The Times: ‘I had to say goodbye to everything and everyone because I didn’t know if I would ever come back.’
He added: ‘If this had gone wrong, it would have been the end of my life as I have known it in any sense.
“It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life. The question is: what do you want to do with it?”