Tech boss Mike Lynch’s co-defendant in US fraud trial critically hurt in UK road accident

Stephen Chamberlain was hit by a car on Saturday. UK tech entrepreneur Lynch is one of 6 missing after a yacht sank off Sicily on Monday

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British tech magnate Mike Lynch. Lynch went missing off the coast of Sicily after his yacht sank on Monday. On Saturday, his co-defendant in a US fraud trial was critically injured in a UK car crash. Photo: AP

Published: 1:45am, 20 Aug 2024Updated: 1:56am, 20 Aug 2024

Stephen Chamberlain, Mike Lynch’s co-defendant in the US fraud trial over the sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard, was critically injured in a road accident on Saturday, days before Lynch went missing off the coast of Sicily, Italy a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former vice-president of finance alongside chief executive Lynch, was hit by a car in Cambridgeshire, Britain on Saturday morning and was placed on life support, the person said.

Lynch was one of six people reported missing after a luxury yacht was struck by an unexpectedly violent storm and sank off Sicily early on Monday.

Chamberlain faced the same charges of fraud and conspiracy as his former boss for allegedly scheming to inflate the company’s value before it was sold.

Both men were acquitted of all 15 charges by a jury in San Francisco in June.

Police and rescuers at the scene of the search for Lynch’s a missing boat in Porticello Santa Flavia, Italy on Monday, Photo: LaPresse via AP

After leaving Autonomy in 2012, Chamberlain worked as chief operating officer for cybersecurity firm Darktrace and volunteered as a finance director for Cambridge United football club, according to his LinkedIn profile.