The Wild Story of Mike Lynch’s Rise From Janitor to Tech Billionaire

**Sam Parr** (0:00)
Well, I have a different billionaire story that's kind of crazy that I want to tell you about.

**Shaan Puri** (0:02)
So, check this out.

**Sam Parr** (0:05)
This is a wild story. I'm just going to embrace yourself.
Okay, let's start with this. I'm going to read you a snippet from an article first. In early 2022, the courts ruled that this person, Mike Lynch, owed $4 billion in damages that are still pending. Okay, so court rules that Mike Lynch owes $4 billion. Next line. At the same time, the US tried to extradite Lynch. He was in the UK. The US says, no, we're going to come try you over here. They bring him over and he arrives in San Francisco in May of 2023, and he's released on a $100 million bail and consigned to house arrest in a rental home with cameras installed in every room, two armed guards on duty around the clock. Now, what's interesting about this is that that rental home with cameras installed in every room and armed guards on duty around the clock is my dad's house. I don't know if you know this. That guy stayed at my dad's Airbnb when he was on trial.

**Shaan Puri** (1:13)
Your dad owns an air, like a home in my dad's actual house.

**Sam Parr** (1:16)
He will Airbnb out for periods of time. He'll go if he gets a booking that's like at the right price point, they'll go get to he'll go to like a motel and a hotel like in, you know, Fremont or something like that. Go stay there for the night. And then he'll be like so happy that he made some money. But my dad didn't know this. He gets a booking. Man, this guy wants this guy just booked three months and three months, by the way, is the max you can even do when you're Airbnb being your own house in San Francisco. It's like you have 90 days. So he's like, wow, I got the whole year from one guy. This is great. So he's like, where am I going to go for three months? And he's figuring it out. I'll go travel, whatever. And then he texts me and he's like, hey, can you check the ring camera real quick? And I checked the ring and there's these bodyguards standing outside the house.

**Shaan Puri** (1:57)
What?

**Sam Parr** (1:58)
What's going on? And so he texts the guy and he's like, hey, Mike, hope you got into the house. Okay. From the lockbox. Curious. What are these guards doing outside the house? And he says, oh, I'm actually on house arrest. I'm awaiting my trial. And for the duration of this, I can't leave the house. That's why I wanted your Airbnb. You have this nice backyard, hard to get a nice backyard in San Francisco. So and my dad's like, what the hell? So he starts googling the case. We all start googling the case. And this guy's story is fascinating.

**Shaan Puri** (2:27)
And is this for autonomy?

**Sam Parr** (2:29)
Yeah. So I'll give you the end of the story, which is which is kind of interesting, right? I don't know if you've have you heard the latest update on this?

**Shaan Puri** (2:35)
No, but not the latest. But I know that it's weird. There's a lot of weird stuff going on.

**Sam Parr** (2:40)
So I'll start with the end. Then we'll go back to the beginning. The end of the story is at some point, my dad's like, hey, I got to go back to live in my house. Your trial's not over. The guy's like, OK, OK, I'll ask the judge if I can move AirBnB. So he moves AirBnBs. He finishes the trial. He's acquitted on all charges. He's a free man to celebrate him, his family, his lawyers. They all get on a yacht. He owns this $30 million yacht and this person that he used to work with, the guy who was his character witness, his lawyer, his wife, the lawyer's wife. They all get on this boat and they start sailing. And mysteriously, two months after being acquitted of all charges, there's a freak yacht accident and he dies. He's killed on this boat. At the same time, 48 hours later, the other guy in the case, his co-founder who was also acquitted on the same day of all the charges, is going for a run and gets hit by a car and also dies. And so, it's kind of strange that this guy who was in this multi-billion dollar fraud suit, 48 hours apart, just a couple of months after being acquitted, him and the co-founder both killed in freak accidents.