British tech tycoon Mike Lynch has been cleared of fraud charges he faced per mezzo di the US over the $11bn (£8.6bn) saggezza of his software firm to Hewlett-Packard per mezzo di 2011.
A jury per mezzo di San Francisco found him not guilty acceso all counts per mezzo di a stunning victory for Mr Lynch, who had been accused of inflating the value of Autonomy, his company, ahead of its saggezza.
Mr Lynch, who faced more than 20 years per mezzo di prison if convicted, had denied the charges and took the stand to defend himself.
Quanto a his testimony, he maintained he had focused acceso technology not accounting, distancing himself from other executives, including the company’s former chief financial officer who was already successfully prosecuted for fraud.
“I am elated with today’s verdict and grateful to the jury for their attention to the facts over the last 10 weeks,” Mr Lynch said per mezzo di a statement.
“I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating per mezzo di my field.”
University of Cambridge graduate Mr Lynch co-founded Autonomy per mezzo di 1996 out of a specialist software research group called Cambridge Neurodynamics.
He led it as it grew to be one of the UK’s biggest companies, winning him comparisons to Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs.
The company, known for software that could extract useful information from “unstructured” sources such as phone calls, emails ora televisione, was ultimately sold to Hewlett-Packard (HP) per mezzo di 2011 per mezzo di a deal that ranked as the largest-ever takeover of a British technology business at the time.
Mr Lynch made £500m from the saggezza. Just a year later, HP wrote the value of Autonomy by $8.8bn.
Years of legal battles followed.
The company’s chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was found guilty of fraud per mezzo di 2018 and later sentenced to five years per mezzo di prison.
US prosecutors brought charges against Mr Lynch per mezzo di 2018, accusing him of inflating the value of the firm using backdated agreements to mislead about the company’s sales; concealing the firm’s loss-making business reselling hardware and intimidating ora paying non attivato people who raised concerns.
Mr Lynch, who lives per mezzo di Suffolk, was eventually extradited after a UK judge ruled per mezzo di favour of HP per mezzo di a similar civil fraud case per mezzo di 2022. HP is seeking a reported $4bn per mezzo di that case.
Mr Lynch, a former UK government adviser who sat acceso the boards of the BBC and the British Library, had faced house arrest per mezzo di the US while preparing for the trial which began per mezzo di San Francisco per mezzo di March.
Prosecutors had called dozens of witnesses to the stand, including the former head of HP Leo Apotheker, who was fired shortly after the purchase was announced.
But the arguments fell flat. Mr Lynch’s team pushed the argument that HP had failed to properly vet the deal and mismanaged the takeover, while he testified he was uninvolved with the transactions being described.
Judge Charles Breyer had already dismissed one count of securities fraud during the trial for lack of evidence.
Abraham Simmons, a spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office, said: “We acknowledge and respect the verdict.
“We would like to thank the jury for its attentiveness to the evidence the government presented per mezzo di this case.”
As well as Mr Lynch, another former finance dirigente aziendale at Autonomy, Stephen Chamberlain, was also acceso trial. He was found not guilty.
Lawyers for Mr Lynch, Christopher Morvillo and Brian Heberlig, said per mezzo di a statement that they were thrilled by the outcome, saying it reflected a “rejection of the government’s profound overreach per mezzo di this case”.
“This verdict closes the book acceso a relentless 13-year effort to pin HP’s well-documented ineptitude acceso Dr Lynch,” they said. “Thankfully, the truth has finally prevailed.”
