Sicily Yacht Sinking: Why Mike Lynch’s Widow May Be Liable for $4 Billion Lawsuit

Mike Lynch's widow could inherit his billion-dollar lawsuit. 

Less than a month after the businessman died aboard the luxury yacht that sank off the coast off Sicily, Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE)—who filed a $6.5 billion claim against the former Autonomy CEO and Autonomy's former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain in the U.K. in 2015—revealed it will continue to pursue damages of up to $4 billion from Lynch's estate, according to a statement from HPE that was obtained by E! News Sept. 4. 

The decision to move forward with the legal case comes after Britain’s High Court ruled in 2022 that Hewlett Packard “had substantially succeeded in its civil fraud claims,” per the company's statement. 

And Hewlett Packard—which accuse Lynch and Hussain in their lawsuit of fraudulently over-valuing Autonomy when selling it to the company for $11 billion in 2011—was confident that the judge's "decision regarding damages" will be issued "in due course." 

However, the court's final decision has yet to be made, and Judge Robert Hildyard previously said he expected the amount Hewlett Packard will win in damages to be "substantially" less than what the company sought, per AP. (Lynch was also notably acquitted in a separate U.S. trial related to Autonomy's sale months before he boarded the Sicily yacht.)

Still, if Hewlett Packard wins the case, Lynch's wife Angela Bacares—who was rescued after the sinking that killed her husband and their 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch—could be the one stuck paying for the damages if she is the beneficiary of his estate. 

E! News reached out to a rep for the Lynch family for comment but has not heard back. 

Bacares, Lynch and their daughter were three of the 22 total people—12 guests and 10 crew members—aboard the 184-foot Bayesian yacht when it sank Aug. 19 off the coast of Sicily, Italy—an incident that maritime experts have described as anomalous.

The tragedy, which occurred due to harsh weather conditions, left five others dead in addition to Lynch and Hannah: cook Recaldo Thomas, spouses Christopher Morvillo and Neda Morvillo, as well as Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy Bloomer. 

Following the boat's sinking, the ship's captain, James Cutfield, became the subject of an investigation for manslaughter, his lawyer confirmed to NBC News. He has yet to be charged with any crime, and the investigation does not suggest that any charges will follow.

As for Bacares, her surviving daughter Esme Lynch has since spoken out about the immeasurable loss they feel over the deaths of Mike and Hannah. 

"She is my little angel, my star," Esme said of her younger sister in an Aug. 25 statement to Sky News. "She had even more love to give endlessly to all her friends and passion to give to her incredible studies and goals."

(E! News and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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