British tech tycoon Mike Lynch was trying to bounce back from HP fraud case before being lost at sea
![](https://ktvz.b-cdn.net/2023/03/osKcX94i-News-BG-NC21-logo-1200x675-1.jpg)
AP Technology Writer
Tech tycoon Mike Lynch, one of six people missing from a sunken yacht off Sicily, had been trying to move past a Silicon Valley debacle that had tarnished his legacy as an icon of British ingenuity. The 59-year-old Lynch struck gold when he sold Autonomy, a software maker that he founded in 1996, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion. But the deal quickly turned into an albatross for him after he was accused of cooking the books to make the sale. The fraud allegations resulted in a criminal trial the culminated in Lynch’s acquittal in June, but he sill faced damages in a civil case that HP mostly won.