A celebration aboard a luxury superyacht off the coast of Italy continued to churn out tragic news on Monday. Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer was reported missing from the sunken yacht, according to the Telegraph.
Bloomer was aboard the 184-foot Bayesian yacht with close friend Mike Lynch, a tech mogul once called “Britain’s Bill Gates,” who recently beat fraud charges in San Francisco stemming from the sale of his tech company, Autonomy. Hewlett-Packard bought the software processing company in 2011 for $11.7 billion, which was one of the largest tech deals in Europe at the time. Afterward, HP accused Lynch and others of accounting fraud, which Lynch denied. He was cleared of all charges in June.
In a sad coincidence, Lynch’s codefendant in the fraud case was hit by a car on Saturday morning while out running. Stephen Chamberlain, former vice president of finance at Autonomy, was accused of fraud and conspiracy along with Lynch. Chamberlain, who was also acquitted, died on Monday after he reportedly spent time on life support.
In addition to Lynch and Bloomer, Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, is also among the missing. A total of 22 crew and passengers were on the vessel, and six remain missing, according to the Wall Street Journal. One has died, reported Bloomberg. Some 15 people who were on the yacht when the storm hit have reportedly been rescued. One was a baby girl whose mother, Charlotte Golunski, saved her daughter by holding her high above the waves while treading water.
A newspaper quoted Golunski: “I held her afloat with all my strength; my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning.” She continued: “So many were screaming. Fortunately, the lifeboat inflated, and 11 of us managed to get on it.”
Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was also reportedly among those rescued, along with Lynch’s lawyer, Ayla Ronald.
The WSJ reported that the yacht sank 164 feet into the water and that rescue teams were still working on Monday.
