The builder of the superyacht Bayesian, on which British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch died, has launched a £400 million legal claim against his widow, alleging that the tragedy caused a catastrophic collapse in its sales.
The Italian Sea Group (TISG) has filed a €456 million (£399 million) lawsuit in a Sicilian court, claiming that the yacht’s crew and the vessel’s holding company were responsible for the sinking and the resulting damage to the company’s reputation and revenues.
Lynch, the former chief executive of Autonomy, died alongside his teenage daughter Hannah and five others when the £30 million superyacht capsized during a violent storm off the coast of Sicily in August 2024. His wife, Angela Bacares Lynch, survived the incident and is the legal owner of Revtom, the Isle of Man-registered company that owned the vessel.
According to the claim TISG alleges that the crew’s “incompetence and negligence” led to the vessel capsizing, and that the company has since lost hundreds of millions of euros in prospective yacht sales after being blamed for the disaster.
The lawsuit has been filed by TISG and GC Holding Company, owned by Italian yachting entrepreneur Giovanni Costantino, in a court in Termini Imerese, near the site of the sinking. It names Revtom, the yacht’s captain James Cutfield, and crew members Timothy Eaton and Matthew Griffiths as defendants.
The claim argues that the Bayesian was “unsinkable” but that the crew failed to shut hatches, heed weather warnings or lower the vessel’s keel, causing it to capsize in high winds. It further alleges that Revtom is legally liable for the actions of those operating the yacht.
The allegations contrast sharply with findings from the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch, which last year said the superyacht had “vulnerabilities” that were not known to the crew. The vessel, built in 2008 under the Perini Navi brand, featured one of the tallest masts in the world.
A source close to the Lynch family strongly rejected TISG’s claims, describing the lawsuit as “desperate, opportunistic and in bad faith”.
“The UK investigation has raised serious and unresolved questions about the yacht’s design, stability and operating characteristics,” the source said. “This action appears designed to distract from those issues, but it will not prevent proper scrutiny of how the vessel was designed, approved and built.”
TISG claims the fallout from the sinking has been financially devastating. The company said it has been unable to sell a single Perini-branded yacht since the incident, with expressions of interest from brokers and potential buyers drying up entirely. It also claims the tragedy has triggered a slump in its share price and a collapse in the value of the Perini Navi brand, which TISG acquired out of bankruptcy in 2021.
Before the disaster, the group said it had planned to sell close to €1 billion worth of yachts by 2028.
Ms Bacares Lynch declined to comment on the lawsuit. TISG did not respond to requests for comment, and the captain and crew members named in the claim could not be reached. Italian prosecutors have confirmed that members of the crew are under criminal investigation.
Lynch founded Cambridge-based software firm Autonomy, which was sold to Hewlett-Packard for £7 billion in 2011. He was later charged with fraud by US prosecutors but was acquitted in 2024. He was celebrating his legal victory with family and friends on board the Bayesian at the time of the sinking.
Separately, Lynch’s estate is facing a major civil claim in the UK from Hewlett-Packard, which is seeking £1.5 billion in damages linked to the Autonomy acquisition. TISG also sued The New York Times last year following a report that raised questions about the yacht’s design.
