The builder of the superyacht on which British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch died has launched a £400m lawsuit against his widow, escalating a bitter legal battle over responsibility for one of the most high-profile maritime disasters in recent years. The Italian Sea Group has filed a €456m claim in a Sicilian court, alleging that the actions of the yacht’s crew and its owning company, rather than any design flaws, caused the vessel to capsize and sink.
The lawsuit centres on the Bayesian, a £30m luxury superyacht built in 2008 by Perini Navi, a prestigious Italian shipyard now owned by The Italian Sea Group. Lynch, the former Autonomy chief executive, was killed alongside his teenage daughter Hannah and five others when the yacht overturned during a violent storm off the coast of Sicily in August 2024. His wife, Angela Bacares Lynch, survived the sinking and is the legal owner of Revtom, the Isle of Man-registered company that held title to the vessel.
According to court filings seen by The Telegraph, The Italian Sea Group claims it has suffered catastrophic financial harm after being publicly blamed for the tragedy. The company argues that accusations surrounding the yacht’s design triggered a collapse in sales, wiped hundreds of millions of euros from expected revenue and severely damaged the value of the Perini Navi brand. The claim describes the losses as ruinous, citing a slump in the group’s share price and the complete halt of sales of Perini-branded yachts since the accident.
The lawsuit asserts that the Bayesian was effectively “unsinkable” and that the disaster was the result of gross incompetence and negligence by the crew. It alleges that hatches were left open, weather warnings were ignored and the vessel’s keel was not lowered in time, leaving the yacht unable to right itself when hit by powerful winds. The Italian Sea Group claims these failures directly led to the capsize and argues that Revtom is legally liable for the actions of those operating the yacht.
Those claims stand in stark contrast to findings by the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch, which last year identified previously unknown vulnerabilities in the Bayesian’s design and operating characteristics. The watchdog said the crew was unaware of those weaknesses, including risks linked to the yacht’s unusually tall mast, one of the tallest in the world. The report raised unresolved questions about stability that continue to hang over the vessel’s construction and approval.
A source close to the Lynch family strongly rejected the shipbuilder’s claims, describing the lawsuit as cynical and opportunistic. The source said the legal action appeared designed to distract from serious design issues highlighted by investigators and insisted it would not prevent proper scrutiny of how the yacht was conceived, built and certified. Ms Bacares Lynch declined to comment publicly on the case.
The claim has been filed in Termini Imerese, near the site of the sinking, and names not only Revtom but also the yacht’s captain, James Cutfield, and two crew members, Timothy Eaton and Matthew Griffiths. The Italian Sea Group alleges the crew committed an “incredible and unspeakable series of very serious errors and omissions” during the storm. Italian prosecutors have confirmed that crew members are under criminal investigation, though no charges have yet been announced.
The Italian Sea Group, which is majority-owned by Italian yachting magnate Giovanni Costantino, acquired Perini Navi out of bankruptcy in 2021. It had ambitious plans to sell nearly €1bn worth of yachts by 2028, but says those ambitions were derailed by the Bayesian tragedy. The company claims that not only have sales collapsed, but that brokers and potential buyers have stopped making any enquiries at all.
The legal action adds another layer of complexity to the legacy of Mike Lynch, once one of Britain’s most prominent technology entrepreneurs. He founded Cambridge-based software firm Autonomy before selling it to Hewlett Packard for £7bn in 2011. Although later charged with fraud by US prosecutors, Lynch was acquitted in 2024 and was celebrating his legal victory with family and friends aboard the Bayesian when he died.
His estate is now under severe financial pressure, facing a separate UK lawsuit from Hewlett Packard, which is seeking £1.5bn in damages related to the Autonomy deal. Meanwhile, The Italian Sea Group is also pursuing legal action against The New York Times, after the newspaper published an investigation questioning the Bayesian’s design, underscoring how the fight over blame for the disaster is playing out across courtrooms on both sides of the Atlantic.
