Stephen Chamberlain, co-defendant of missing tech tycoon Mike Lynch, killed in car crash

Stephen Chamberlain, the accomplice of missing British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, who was on trial with him for fraud following the sale of software company Autonomy, died just days before the entrepreneur disappeared in the shipping accident off the coast of Sicily.

Chamberlain was jogging in Cambridgeshire, England, on Saturday when he was hit by a car and died after being taken to a nearby hospital.

Chamberlain and Lynch, who is still missing after the luxury yacht he was on with his wife and 18-year-old daughter sank on Monday, were co-defendants in the decade-long fraud trial that arose after the company's $11 billion sale to Hewlett-Packard.

Both men were acquitted last June.

Lynch's wife, Angela Baceres, was rescued shortly after the ship sank in a severe storm. However, the British technology magnate – dubbed the “Bill Gates of Britain” – and his daughter Hannah are among six missing passengers who have not yet been found – four of them are British and two are American.