And is there a connection to the fact that another well-known man in the same multi-billionaire circle was almost simultaneously killed?
The luxury yacht was called Bayesian and had around 20 people on board. The host was Mike Lynch, an IT magnate known as "Britain's Bill Gates". The 59-year-old wanted to celebrate being acquitted in court in the USA for fraud in a deal where his company Autonomy was valued at over 100 billion kronor.
Early on Monday, Bayesian was anchored off Sicily. A storm tore up, but the luxury yacht was close to land and should normally have easily weathered such weather.
Less than a quarter of an hour later, however, the vessel was flooded. 15 of the passengers managed to rescue themselves, one man - the boat's cook - was found dead in the water after the shipwreck, while Lynch and five other people were sucked down into the depths.
Tall Mast
Just a stone's throw away, a sailboat took in the 15 distressed passengers. Its captain, Karsten Borner, writes to the news agency AP that the storm was indeed violent, but his vessel had no problems at all.
Borner does not understand why it went so badly for Bayesian. However, he speculates that the luxury yacht's unusually tall mast, 75 meters, may have contributed to it capsizing.
Meteorologists also mention that climate change may have played a role. The Mediterranean currently has unprecedented, high water temperatures. They may have contributed to a sudden and violent whirlwind, a so-called water tornado.
Three degrees higher water temperature means an enormous amount of energy for storms, and if cold air is added, the effect is explosive, says Luca Mercalli at Italy's weather agency SMI to The Guardian.
Even if you're prepared, it's hard to react in time.
Hit by a Car in England
Mike Lynch was acquitted together with his partner Stephen Chamberlain by a jury in San Francisco in June. Chamberlain was not on the boat, but had been hit by a car driver while jogging in England on Saturday. In an extraordinary coincidence, Chamberlain was pronounced dead at the hospital on Monday, the same day Lynch drowned in the Mediterranean.
The deaths occur 12 years after the IT giant HP sounded the alarm that the men's company Autonomy was only worth a fraction of the multi-billion amounts the American company had paid in a takeover in 2011. Since then, the trials have followed each other, and although the US jury acquitted in June, other courts have found that large-scale fraud had taken place.
Among the remarkable circumstances, it is also mentioned that Lynch and Chamberlain have connections to the spy world. Their company has had high-ranking employees from spy agencies such as British GCHQ and MI5, as well as the USA's NSA, writes Politico.
