‘All consuming’ legal case took big toll on Christopher Morvillo before he vanished on Bayesian superyacht, friend says
AN attorney missing with his wife following the sinking of the Bayesian superyacht gushed about his excitement for the future just days before embarking on the doomed voyage, a friend says.
Christopher Morvillo and his wife, Neda, are among six people missing from the luxury $18million yacht which sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily on Monday.
The boat had been chartered by British billionaire tech tycoon Mike Lynch to celebrate his acquittal from a high-profile, years-long criminal fraud trial in Silicon Valley – a landmark victory Morvillo helped him secure.
The British-flagged vessel had been carrying 12 passengers and 10 members of crew when it was engulfed in a fearsome storm at around 4:30am local time on Monday.
Lynch, 59, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah are among the missing, as is Johnathan Bloomer, the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and Bloomer’s wife Judy.
Morvillo, a partner at the major NYC firm Clifford Chance, appeared on a podcast just days before setting sail on the Bayesian, reflecting on his career-defining legal victory on behalf of Lynch and sharing his plans for the future.
Host of the show, David Markus, told The U.S. Sun that Morvillo confessed Lynch’s “all-encompassing” legal fight had taken a sizeable toll on him and he was planning to take a significant vacation from work to spend much-needed quality time with his family.
Morvillo shared that he was “excited” about his trip aboard the Bayesian, Markus said.
“He told me that he was going to take a lot of time off, time that he needed. He needed it. His family needed it,” said Markus.
“He lives in New York but this case was tried in California, so he was away from his family for a long time, and this was a chance for him to re-energize and spend some time with his family, and celebrate a career-defining moment he’d fought so hard for.
“So he was really excited about that […] and then to hear that this has happened, it’s just sort of mind-numbing.
“I can’t believe it. It’s just so sad. It’s unbelievably sad.”
Morvillo’s interview with Markus for his podcast, For The Defence, first aired on August 13 and was recorded the week before.
Markus hadn’t met Morvillo before recording the episode but they became “fast friends”, bonding over their shared profession and love of family, he said.
Morvillo has two adult daughters with his wife Neda: Sabrina, 27, and Sophia, 23.
Markus said the two girls were due to fly out to meet their parents to join them in celebrating Lynch’s acquittal.
“I am so relieved the girls hadn’t arrived yet when this tragedy struck,” Markus said.
“I can’t even imagine what those girls must be going through right now.
“I know the entire legal community, myself included, is thinking of them, and our hearts and prayers go out to these two wonderful women who Chris couldn’t stop talking about.
“He was so proud of his daughters.”
CHILLING REMARKS
In the days before the Bayesian set sail, Markus had been emailing Morvillo about the episode and sharing the positive feedback he’d been receiving.
Morvillo told Markus he was looking forward to reading the reviews once he was aboard the Bayesian and the two men made tentative plans to meet up again once Morvillo was back stateside.
“He was just an amazing person; he was charming, smart, full of life, and just excited to take some time off after all this,” said Markus.
“He was also a family guy and a hard worker, and he seemed to have it all.
“I had just gotten to know him, and we had spoken about getting together in person when he got back from the trip.
“This is just an enormous loss, and I feel so heavily for his close friends and family. It’s difficult to put into words.”
A LinkedIn post authored by Morvillo at the close of Lynch’s trial has been drawing attention online for its now-eerie seeming contents in the wake of Monday’s tragedy.
In the post, Morvillo thanked his legal team for their “painstaking work” and made a special mention to his family for their enduring support.
The post concludes, “[F]inally, a huge thank you to my patient and incredible wife, Neda Morvillo, and my two strong, brilliant, and beautiful daughters, Sabrina Morvillo and Sophia Morvillo.
“None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home.”
Marvillo signed off the post with the words, “And they all lived happily ever after….”
Two months later, he and his wife are missing at sea.
Markus said the post makes for a difficult read now.
“It’s so upsetting because people don’t realize what a criminal case does. It’s all-consuming. It takes everything away from the client and impacts everyone involved, even when you win – it has a great effect,” Markus said.
“I know that Mr. Lynch was looking forward to trying to make reforms in the criminal justice arena, and I know he and Chris had spoken about that, and they were looking forward to it.
“So those comments on LinkedIn really strike a chord now.”
Markus added that Morvillo’s disappearance and suspected death have taught him two key lessons that he’ll take in his stride from now on.
“One is how important it is to savor these experiences when they come along,” he shared.
“And two is how important family is, which is something Chris understood.
“That’s why my heart goes out to his two daughters because he was just so excited to be with them and spend time with them.
“This is just all so shocking and upsetting.”
RACE AGAINST TIME
The frantic hunt to find the six missing passengers aboard the Bayesian entered its second day on Tuesday.
The 185ft vessel capsized in the early hours of Monday after it was caught in a tornado off the coast of Porticello, Sicily.
Horrifying surveillance footage captured the vessel being slowly consumed by a downpouring of rain moments before disaster struck.
Of the 22 people on board, fifteen have been rescued, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, and a one-year-old girl whose mom held her above her head before they were both saved.
Only one person has been confirmed dead so far: Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian-Antiguan who was the boat’s chef.
A shell-shocked Bacares told Italian outlet La Repubblica that she and Lynch woke up at around 4am on Monday after the superyacht pitched suddenly.
Screams of terror then shrieked out when the mast collapsed the vessel capsized.
Bacares, who is now wheelchair-bound after walking through broken glass to escape to safety, told local media that “everything was falling” around her and she was almost “carried away” before she managed to escape to safety.
She and her husband weren’t concerned at first but as she got up to investigate, the sound of shattering glass sparked panic.
Divers returned to the site of the wreckage early Tuesday in an attempt to reach the ship’s hull some 164ft underwater, where officials believe others may be trapped.
Progress in the rescue mission has been slow because divers can only swim at the depths where the Bayesian is for up to 12 minutes at a time, officials said.
Further hampering efforts is the fact furniture inside the boat has been blocking access to the cabins.
Rescuers have now opened a hole in the Bayesian’s hole to aid access.
They are also using an underwater vehicle to help divers, as well as five patrol boats and one helicopter searching from above the water.
Vincenzo Zagarola, a spokesman for the coast guard, said they believe the missing people are still inside as the yacht sank in just a few minutes.
He said: “We think they are still inside the boat, that is our very hard idea. Our search and rescue activity by sea and air has gone on for around 36 hours.
“Of course, we do not exclude that they are not inside the boat, but we know the boat sank quickly.
“We suppose that the six people missing may not have had time to get out of the boat.”
Footage and pictures from the scene showed hordes of firefighters, divers and police scouring the water throughout Monday, overnight and again on Tuesday.
Officials say the vessel is lying “practically intact” on its side at the bottom of the sea, but a “world of objects” including furniture and other debris is causing a series of issues.
Diver Marco Tilotta told reporters at noon local time on Tuesday that rescuers had finished their first dive of the day and would go back down to try and “penetrate inside the vessel”.
He said of those feared dead: “We will do everything we can to recover the bodies.
“The weather conditions are worsening but we hope to continue the operations without problems”.
‘BRITISH BILL GATES’ ACQUITTED
Four of the missing from the Bayesian yacht disaster are British and two are American.
Mike Lynch, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, and his teenage daughter Hannah are among the missing Brits.
Lynch invited 12 guests aboard the Bayesian to celebrate his triumphant acquittal from a 13-year-long fraud case, stemming from the $11bn sale of his firm Autonomy in 2011.
Prosecutors accused Lynch and his financial director Shushovan Hussain of using “every accounting trick in the book” to overinflate the value of his business by $5bn.
Lynch had been living under house arrest in San Fransisco for more than a year before he was acquitted by a jury just two months ago.
He was facing up to 25 years in prison and was given just a 0.5 percent chance of winning the case, which is the largest of its kind in Silicon Valley’s history.
Lynch’s colleague and co-defendant in the case, Stephen Chamberlain, died days before the Bayesian’s sinking after being struck by a car while jogging near his home in the UK.
Tributes have begun to flood in for Lynch and his daughter.
Hannah’s former school, West London’s Latymer Upper School, released a statement voicing their shock at the news of the tragedy.
“We are all incredibly shocked by the news that Hannah and her father are among those missing in this tragic incident and our thoughts are with their family and everyone involved as we await further updates,” a spokesperson said.
‘SHOCK’ OVER MISSING ATTORNEY
International chairman of bank giant Morgan Stanley, Brit Jonathan Bloomer, 70, is also missing along with his wife Judy.
Morvillo is a partner at the esteemed Clifford Chance law firm in NYC.
One of his colleagues, Ayla Ronald, was also on board with her husband but both survived.
A spokesperson for the firm told The U.S. Sun they are all “in shock and deeply saddened” by the tragedy.
“Our thoughts are with our Partner, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife Neda who are among the missing, and with their families,” said the spokesperson.
“Our utmost priority is providing support to the family as well as our colleague Ayla Ronald, who together with her partner, thankfully survived the incident.
“Our thoughts extend to the other passengers and crew and all those affected. We have no further comment at this time. We, and the families, ask that their request for privacy is honored during this period.”
According to his bio on the Clifford Chance website, Morvillo has extensive experience representing corporate and individual clients in white-collar government investigations.
From 1999 to 2005, Morvillo served as an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Morvillo assisted in the criminal investigation surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
He was also one of the lead prosecutors on the successful 10-month counter-terrorism trial of defense attorney Lynne Stewart and her co-conspirators, one of the longest criminal trials in Southern District history.
The lawyer investigated, tried and handled appeals in a wide variety of criminal cases, including in the area of healthcare fraud, insurance fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and narcotics.
He also deals with related regulatory and civil proceedings, and internal investigations.
His wife Neda runs her own high-end jewelry line using her maiden name Neda Nassiri.
The couple own an apartment in Manhattan’s Upper East Side and a large four-bedroom home in South Kent, Connecticut, worth $2.3 million, property records show.
Who is Mike Lynch?
By Georgie English, Foreign News Reporter
ENTREPRENEUR Mike Lynch is still believed to be missing hours after a £14m luxury yacht capsized in a tornado off the coast of Sicily.
The tech tycoon, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, was one of the 22 people sailing onboard the £166,000 a week vessel, the Telegraph reported this afternoon.
Lynch, 59, sold Autonomy Corporation – a tech company for $11b to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
He has also been involved in Invoke Capital and cybersecurity company Darktrace.
He was awarded an OBE for his services to enterprise in 2006.
Born in Ilford, Lynch had a firefighter father from County Cork and a nurse mother from County Tipperary.
Away from work, Mike is married to wife Angela Bacares and the pair have two children together.
In 2023, the Sunday Times rich list set the couple’s value at £852m.
Just weeks ago, Lynch was acquitted of criminal charges by a jury in San Francisco after a 12-year legal battle over the $11bn sale of his firm, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
He was extradited to the US on fraud charges back in 2023 with a judge setting his bail at £79m.
US Marshsals took Lynch into custody at Heathrow, putting him in chains and bundling him on board a United Airlines flight.
However, he had a few things in his favour.
The nature of the case led to a boring and turgid trial, including painstaking parades of emails, reports and spreadsheets filled with jargon, leaving jurors glassy-eyed.
One was even dismissed because he repeatedly fell asleep.
Lynch argued that any questionable activity was entirely immaterial in the context of a thriving business bringing in hundreds of millions a year.
While his lawyers claimed the books were approved by outside accountants and that, by British standards, the deals in question were appropriately accounted for.
Lynch was used as the final witness and rather than going “right for the jugular”, as his head lawyer Brian Heberlig said, the prosecutors simply “reviewed a chronology of documents, with no probing questions”. The jury agreed.