Former Autonomy CEO Dr. Mike Lynch issued an announcement after he was acquitted of prison prices, ending a 13-year authorized battle with HP that grew to become one among Silicon Valley’s largest fraud circumstances. He was accused of inflating income earlier than promoting the British startup to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011.
Commenting on the acquittal, Dr. Lynch (pictured above left throughout his look at TechCrunch Disrupt) mentioned: “I’m delighted with as we speak’s verdict and thank the jury for his or her consideration to the info over the previous ten weeks. My deepest gratitude I’m deeply grateful to my authorized workforce for his or her tireless work on my behalf. I look ahead to returning to the UK, to the place I really like most: my household and to innovating in my area.
After a 12-week trial, the entrepreneur was cleared of 15 counts of fraud and conspiracy associated to the 2011 takeover.
Lynch’s victory is noteworthy as a result of solely 0.4% of federal prison circumstances in the USA (in fiscal 12 months 2022, in response to Pew Analysis Heart) resulted in trial and acquittal, and solely 12% of all prosecutions The case was ultimately acquitted.
Dr. Lynch’s authorized counsel, Christopher Morvillo and Brian Heberlig, added in an announcement: “We’re excited in regards to the jury’s verdict, which displays the federal government’s A Robust Rejection of Overreach within the Case Proof introduced at trial in the end exonerated McClinchey. The decision capped a 13-year marketing campaign guilty HP for its documented incompetence. Dr. Lynch. Fortunately, the reality prevailed and we thank Dr. Lynch for his belief throughout this ordeal and hope he can now return dwelling to the UK to restart his life and proceed to innovate.
Lynch, 58, was beforehand extradited to the USA and was positioned underneath home arrest and 24-hour surveillance forward of trial. He has lengthy maintained that he was HP’s scapegoat, claiming that HP botched its acquisition of Autonomy and later mismanaged the corporate’s software program belongings.
Mr Lynch made £500m promoting Autonomy to HP. However only a 12 months later, HP wrote down $8.8B of its funding, blaming $5B of that price ticket on Autonomy’s alleged income inflation, it claimed on the time.
Prosecutors allege Lynch and Chamberlain illegally inflated income earlier than the acquisition and hid extremely worthwhile software program income in unprofitable {hardware} gross sales.
At trial, Lynch efficiently argued that he was not concerned in accounting and contracting issues and was as a substitute targeted on technical and advertising and marketing points.
Regardless of unsuccessfully arguing that the case must be tried within the UK, resulting in Lynch’s extradition, a US jury acquitted Lynch on all counts, together with former Autonomy vice chairman of finance Stephen Chamberlain, who was additionally on trial. Not responsible both.
“We acknowledge and respect this verdict,” the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in San Francisco mentioned. “We wish to thank the jury for his or her consideration to the proof introduced by the federal government on this case.”
Autonomy’s sale to HP was seen as a testomony to Britain’s booming tech trade, and the platform’s capability to sift by means of unstructured databases was seen on the time as a means for HP to rebuild its flat {hardware} enterprise.
Lynch co-founded Autonomy in 1996 from a specialised software program analysis group known as Cambridge Neurodynamics.
In 2006, Lynch was awarded an OBE for providers to enterprise, went on to grow to be a UK authorities adviser, sit on the boards of the BBC and the British Library, based Invoke Capital VC, and invested in ground-breaking cyber safety firm Darktrace .
