An Italian government official says British tech businessman Mike Lynch’s body has been retrieved from the sunken luxury yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily earlier this week while his family and friends were celebrating after his recent acquittal in a high-profile trial.
As previously reported that five bodies had been found in the days after the Bayesian went into the water early on Monday, Aug. 19, following what was described by authorities as a “violent storm.”
Massimo Mariani, an official with the Italian interior ministry, confirmed to Reuters that Lynch was one of the victim’s found while Lynch’s daughter Hannah remains missing.
Mariani could not immediately be reached for comment by PEOPLE and a ministry spokesperson said they would not confirm Lynch’s identity, though sources close to the search and rescue operation told PEOPLE Lynch’s body had been recovered.
According to the Italian coast guard, the Bayesian was off the coast of Porticello when tragedy struck on Aug. 19, though it remains unclear why exactly the vessel sank so quickly.
Twenty-two people were on board, including 12 passengers and 10 crew, the coast guard said.
Fifteen of those were soon rescued, including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, and the body of the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, was found nearby.
Six people were reported as missing: Lynch and daughter Hannah; Chairman of Morgan Stanley International Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy; as well as New York City-based lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife, Neda.
A source close to the survivors previously told PEOPLE that the passengers were celebrating after Lynch, labeled in headlines as Britain’s “Bill Gates,” was acquitted in June in a financial fraud trial in the U.S. that was related to selling his software company Autonomy for $11 billion to Hewlett Packard in 2011.
“That’s why he took his closest friends and colleagues on the trip,” the source said.
