Former Autonomy chief government Mike Lynch issued a press release Thursday after being acquitted of felony expenses, ending a 13-year authorized battle with Hewlett-Packard that turned certainly one of Silicon Valley’s largest fraud instances. He was accused of falsely inflating the British startup’s income earlier than Autonomy’s $11 billion sale to HP in 2011.
Commenting on the not responsible verdict, Lynch (pictured above left whereas showing on TechCrunch Disrupt) mentioned in a press release: “I’m inspired by at the moment’s verdict and grateful to the jury for his or her consideration to the information over the previous ten weeks. I categorical my deepest gratitude to my authorized crew for his or her tireless work on my behalf. “I’m wanting ahead to returning to the UK and getting again to what I like most: my household and innovating in my subject.”
After a 12-week trial, the entrepreneur was cleared of 15 counts of fraud and conspiracy introduced towards him in reference to the 2011 acquisition.
Lynch’s victory is notable in mild of the truth that within the U.S. in fiscal 12 months 2022, solely 0.4% of federal felony instances resulted in a trial and acquittal, in line with the Pew Analysis Heart, and solely 12% of all wire fraud instances. resulted in acquittal.
Christopher Morvillo and Brian Heberlig, Lynch’s authorized counsel, added in a press release: “We’re delighted with the jury’s verdict, which displays a powerful rejection of the federal government’s gross overreach on this case. The proof offered at trial convincingly demonstrated Mike Lynch’s innocence. This verdict ends a relentless 13-year effort in charge HP’s well-documented incompetence on Dr. Lynch. Fortuitously, the reality has lastly prevailed. We thank Dr Lynch for his belief all through this ordeal and hope that he can now return dwelling to England to renew his life and proceed to innovate.”
Lynch, 58, was beforehand extradited to the USA and positioned below home arrest and 24-hour supervision pending trial. He has lengthy argued that HP made him a scapegoat, claiming the corporate botched its Autonomy acquisition after which mismanaged the corporate’s software program belongings.
Lynch made £500 million from the sale of Autonomy to HP. However only a 12 months later, HP wrote down its funding by $8.8 billion, saying that $5 billion of that write-down was attributable to practices employed by Autonomy’s earlier administration that inflated Autonomy’s worth and misled potential consumers into believing that the corporate far more priceless.
Prosecutors accused Lynch and Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former vp of finance, of illegally inflating pre-acquisition revenues and hiding extremely worthwhile software program revenues behind loss-making {hardware} gross sales.
At trial, Lynch efficiently argued that he was not concerned in accounting or contracting issues, however as a substitute centered on technical and advertising and marketing points.
Regardless of unsuccessful arguments that the case must be tried in Britain, which led to his extradition, an American jury acquitted Lynch of all expenses, together with Chamberlain, who was additionally on trial.
The US Lawyer’s Workplace in San Francisco mentioned: “We acknowledge and respect the decision. We want to thank the jury for its consideration of the federal government’s proof on this case.”
The sale of Autonomy to HP was seen as affirmation of the UK’s thriving know-how scene, and the platform’s means to investigate unstructured databases was seen on the time as a approach for HP to rebuild its {hardware} enterprise.
Lynch based Autonomy in 1996 out of a specialised software program analysis group referred to as Cambridge Neurodynamics.
Since receiving an OBE for providers to the enterprise in 2006, Lynch has change into an adviser to the UK authorities, served on the boards of the BBC and the British Library, based enterprise capital agency Invoke Capital and invested in revolutionary cybersecurity firm Darktrace.