(San Francisco) British businessman Mike Lynch was acquitted following his trial for fraud in San Francisco (California), relating to the sale of software publisher Autonomy to the American group Hewlett-Packard ( HP) for $11 billion in 2011, we learned from reliable sources.
“We respect the verdict and we thank the jury for their attention to the evidence presented by the prosecution in this case,” commented a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, confirming the verdict.
“I am delighted with today’s verdict,” responded Mike Lynch in a press release.
“I can’t wait to return to the United Kingdom and find what I love most: my family and innovation in my specialty,” added the man who was an advisor to two British prime ministers.
Asked by AFP, an HP lawyer did not immediately respond.
The verdict was rendered after two days of deliberations, following a trial which began on March 18.
A year after the takeover, HP accused Autonomy of having rigged its accounts, citing “significant accounting irregularities”.
HP notably accused Mike Lynch and former CFO Sushovan Hussain of having artificially inflated the company’s reported revenues, revenue growth and margins.
The American group had to write down nearly 9 billion dollars, including more than 5 billion presented as the result of accounting manipulations carried out within Autonomy before the transaction.
Originally from Suffolk, in the east of England, Mike Lynch had refuted all the charges against him. He accused HP of making him a “scapegoat for its own failures.”
“I think Autonomy was a successful company. From a financial point of view it was extremely profitable,” he insisted at the hearing on May 23, emphasizing that it was certainly “not perfect.”
“But the reality of life is that everything is nuanced and sometimes you do the best you can with that, and companies do exactly the same,” he added.
He pocketed some $815 million from the sale.
HP also sued Autonomy’s former CFO, Sushovan Hussain. In 2018, a US jury convicted him of sales fraud, earning him a five-year prison sentence.
In 2022, British courts ruled that HP had been duped and paid too much. HP has requested from the High Court of Justice in London a reimbursement of 5 billion dollars from the two former directors of Autonomy.
Mike Lynch was extradited in 2023 from the United Kingdom to the United States to stand trial.
American justice considered that he presented a “serious risk of flight”, he was placed under house arrest in San Francisco under the surveillance of a private security service at his expense, according to a legal document.