HP wins fraud case against UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch
By MYBRANDBOOK
LONDON : A British judge found on Friday that tech tycoon Mike Lynch had masterminded an elaborate fraud to inflate the value of his company Autonomy and is one of the UK's biggest tech deals.
Lynch sold his software start-up Autonomy to HP in 2011 for $11.7 billion. The court's decision coincided with a Friday deadline for Britain to decide whether or not to extradite Lynch. HP sold the remnants of Autonomy along with other assets to British company Micro Focus in 2016.
HP wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8 billion within a year and sought damages from Lynch and his finance director Sushovan Hussain. Hussain was convicted of fraud in the United States and sentenced to five years in prison in 2019.
HP won the majority of the charges, Justice Robert Hildyard said, though the damages would be significantly lower than the $5 billion sought by the company.
Lynch received a further blow later on Friday when Britain's interior ministry ordered his extradition to the United States to face criminal charges over the deal that carry a maximum prison term of 20 years. Lynch intends to appeal both the judge's finding and the extradition order, his lawyers said.
Lynch, 56, had formerly gained a reputation as one of the U.K.’s most successful tech entrepreneurs. He was once described in the U.K. press as “Britain’s Bill Gates.
Lynch was also central to the creation of DarkTrace, a cyber security firm that listed on the stock market last year with a current value around $3.6 billion. Lynch and his wife Angela Bacares own nearly 16% of DarkTrace, according to Refinitiv data.
The judge said Lynch was aware that practices Autonomy engaged in were dishonest, its revenue recognition was improper and its accounts were false. The court's decision coincided with a Friday deadline for Britain to decide whether or not to extradite Lynch.
Britain's interior ministry said that it had to sign the extradition order if there were no grounds to prohibit the order being made. The criminal charges in the United States include wire fraud and securities fraud.
Lynch's lawyers said that as he is a British citizen who ran a British company, the case should not be resolved in the United States.
"Dr Lynch firmly denies the charges brought against him in the U.S. and will continue to fight to establish his innocence," lawyer Chris Morvillo said.
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