The builder of the Bayesian superyacht on which British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch died has filed a £400 million lawsuit against his widow, claiming the tragedy has led to a catastrophic collapse in sales.
The Italian Sea Group (TISG) has filed a €456m (£399m) lawsuit in a Sicilian court, claiming that the yacht’s crew and the ship’s holding company were responsible for the sinking and the resulting damage to the company’s reputation and revenue.
Lynch, the former chief executive of Autonomy, died alongside his teenage daughter Hannah and five others when the £30million 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 ship.
According to the lawsuit, TISG claims that the crew’s “incompetence and negligence” caused the ship to capsize and that the company has since lost hundreds of millions of euros in potential yacht sales after being blamed for the disaster.
The lawsuit was filed by TISG and GC Holding Company, owned by Italian yacht entrepreneur Giovanni Costantino, in a court in Termini Imerese, near the site of the sinking. Revtom, the yacht’s captain, James Cutfield, and crew members Timothy Eaton and Matthew Griffiths are named as defendants.
The claim argues that the Bayesian was “unsinkable” but that the crew failed to close hatches, heed weather warnings or lower the ship’s keel, causing it to capsize in high winds. In addition, Revtom will be held legally liable for the actions of the yacht’s operators.
The allegations are in sharp contrast to the findings of Britain’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch, which last year said the superyacht had “vulnerabilities” that were not known to the crew. Built in 2008 under the Perini Navi brand, the ship had one of the tallest masts in the world.
A source close to the Lynch family strongly denied TISG’s claims, describing the lawsuit as “desperate, opportunistic and in bad faith.”
“The British investigation has raised serious and unresolved questions about the design, stability and operational characteristics of the yacht,” the source said. “This action appears to be intended to distract from these issues, but it does not prevent proper review of how the ship was designed, approved and built.”
TISG claims the consequences of the sinking have been financially devastating. The company said it had been unable to sell a single Perini-branded yacht since the incident as expressions of interest from brokers and potential buyers dried up completely. The company also claims that the tragedy triggered a collapse in the share price and a decline in the value of the Perini Navi brand, which TISG acquired from bankruptcy in 2021.
Before the disaster, the group said it planned to sell yachts worth almost a billion euros 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 lawsuit could not be reached. Italian prosecutors have confirmed that criminal investigations are underway against the crew members.
Lynch founded Cambridge-based software company Autonomy, which was sold to Hewlett-Packard for £7bn in 2011. He was later charged with fraud by US prosecutors but was acquitted in 2024. At the time of the sinking, he was celebrating his legal victory with family and friends aboard the Bayesian.
Additionally, Lynch’s estate is facing a major civil lawsuit in the United Kingdom from Hewlett-Packard, which is seeking £1.5 billion in damages related to the Autonomy takeover. TISG also sued The New York Times last year after a report raised questions about the yacht’s design.
