Lynch was last night among six missing passengers, including one of his two daughters, 18-year-old Hannah.

His wife Angela, the yacht's registered owner, was among the survivors.

Lynch's presumed death would be the cruellest twist of fate given that less than a month ago he was telling an interviewer of his fears when he left the UK for California – where he spent 13 months under house arrest awaiting trial – that he'd never come home.

He was charged with 15 counts of fraud and conspiracy over the £8.6 billion sale of his business software company, Autonomy, to US computer giant Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

Instead, he said in the interview, he was looking forward to seeing his daughters, and returning to his cherished Suffolk farm and the five dogs he named after engineering parts, including Switch and Valve.

Aged 59 and facing a maximum 25-year sentence, Lynch – whose family is estimated to be worth £500 million – had admitted that a serious lung condition made it unlikely that he'd have come out of prison alive.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13759289/Inside-life-brilliant-eccentric-Mike-Lynch.html