The saga of the tech CEO’s sunken yacht just got a whole lot more interesting

A little over a month ago, the 184-foot yacht owned by tech millionaire Mike Lynch suddenly sank. The boat was anchored off the coast of Sicily, where it had been parked for a night of partying, when a “freak storm” suddenly appeared in nearby waters. Within 16 minutes, the vessel sank. Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter, his lawyer and several others all drowned.

The tragic incident immediately raised suspicions because of the strange timing of the yacht’s sinking. Lynch and his fellow travelers were on the boat to celebrate Lynch’s recent legal victory: The technology executive had recently been found not guilty in a decade-long fraud case involving the multibillion-dollar sale of his software company to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. After years of battling fraud allegations related to the deal, a U.S. court — just two months before the tragic boating incident — acquitted the technology executive of all charges related to the case.

Now, in a twist that’s sure to irritate conspiracy theorists, CNN is reporting that the yacht, known as the Bayesian, may contain waterproof vaults that house “super-encrypted hard drives.” Lynch apparently didn’t trust cloud services and as a result took encrypted drives with him whenever he went sailing. Those drives, in turn, “may contain highly sensitive data linked to multiple Western intelligence services,” the station reported, citing four sources familiar with the local police investigation.

To bolster this argument, CNN highlights Lynch’s high-level government ties, noting that he has been “connected to British, American and other intelligence services through his various companies” (Lynch has been involved in the cybersecurity industry, which often works closely with government agencies), and has served as an advisor to multiple British prime ministers in the past, including David Cameron and Theresa May.

Authorities are now scrambling to seize and protect the sunken hard drives. CNN reports that police are increasing security and underwater surveillance around the sunken vessel, apparently fearing it could become a target for attacks by foreign governments (named Russia and China).

It’s an incredibly strange twist in a story that’s had its fair share of strange twists. One example is Stephen Chamberlain, Lynch’s business partner (and co-defendant in the recently concluded lawsuit), who died the same day Lynch’s boat sank. Chamberlain was hit by a car while jogging on August 17 and died from his injuries two days later. While this may sound like something straight out of Michael ClaytonIt could also be a coincidence. The likely driver of the vehicle that hit Chamberlin is a 49-year-old woman who “remained at the scene” after police arrived.

Lynch’s software company, Autonomy, was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. Lynch served as CEO of Autonomy when the deal closed. However, Lynch left the company shortly after the deal was completed, and the business quickly fell apart. He was subsequently accused of inflating the value of Autonomy in the run-up to its sale to Hewlett-Packard. Lynch denied the allegations and maintained that HP had botched the company’s operations after the purchase. After years spent in court fighting the allegations, a U.S. court eventually agreed with Lynch’s story.

Lynch’s attorney, Chris Morvillo, who helped him win his case against HP, also died with his wife when the Bayesian sank. The couple celebrated their legal victory with Lynch.