All about the fraud trial that acquitted Mike Lynch, who disappeared during a celebratory yacht trip off the coast of Sicily

Lynch was accused of inflating the revenue of his company, which he sold to HP in 2011

Two months before he was declared missing following the sinking of a superyacht off the coast of Sicily, British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch was acquitted of charges of fraud and conspiracy.

Lynch was apparently celebrating his acquittal with a vacation trip on the boat when the yacht sank in the early morning of August 19, local authorities previously confirmed to PEOPLE.

Officials said Lynch's daughter Hannah and four other people were also missing. The ship sank off the coast of Porticello after a “violent storm,” officials said. Fifteen people, including Lynch's wife, were rescued.

Lynch's legal saga, which was also covered by the Associated Press and BBC, began in 2018 when he was charged by California prosecutors with multiple counts of securities fraud and conspiracy.

The charges related to the 2011 sale of Autonomy, an enterprise software company founded by Lynch, to Hewlett Packard. The sale, the AP reported, was valued at $11 billion, with Lynch himself earning $800 million of that.

Related: Tech tycoon Mike Lynch and daughter missing after luxury yacht sinks off Sicily coast

US federal authorities had alleged that Lynch inflated Autonomy's revenues before the sale to HP. TechCrunchreported.

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Following the sale, the tech news site reported that HP wrote down its investment — or reduced its value on the company's balance sheet — by more than $8 billion, claiming that most of the write-down was due to Autonomy's previous management making misrepresentations about the company's value.

Related: 6 passengers, including 2 Americans, missing after 180-foot yacht sinks during storm in Sicily

The trial will not begin until 2024, the BBC reported, because Lynch fought extradition to the United States for years after his indictment.

Lynch, who faced 15 charges, was acquitted of all charges in June, media reported.

“I look forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovation in my field,” Lynch said in a statement released by AP after his acquittal.

TechCrunch It was also reported that Lynch's co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain, who was also acquitted, had died in a car accident a week earlier.

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