Autonomy: British businessman Mike Lynch extradited to US
Tech’s “trial of the century” continues across the Atlantic. Mike Lynch “finally arrived on our…
Autonomy: British businessman Mike Lynch extradited to US
Tech’s “trial of the century” continues across the Atlantic. Mike Lynch “finally arrived on our territory to be judged there” indicated the American justice this Thursday, within the framework of a vast case of fraud linked to the sale of the British publisher of Autonomy software to the American group Hewlett Packard (HP) for more than 11 billion dollars in 2011.
The procedure has a civil component in the United Kingdom and a criminal component in the United States. The British government had signed in this context, in January 2022, an order for the extradition of the British businessman, while he faces up to 25 years in prison on American soil. The contractor will have to post $100 million bail to be released, as he is considered to present a “serious flight risk”. He will have to reside in or around San Francisco and be guarded at all times by a security company, specify the conditions for release on bail described in the document.
In one of the most great fiascos in the history of tech HP had accused Autonomy of having rigged its accounts, after discovering what the American group presents as “significant accounting irregularities”.
$5 billion in et impairment
HP notably blames former Autonomy chief executive Mike Lynch and the company’s former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain for artificially inflating the company’s reported revenues, revenue growth and margins. . Sushovan Hussain has already been sentenced to prison in the United States and imprisoned.
The scandal erupted in November 2012, on the occasion of the publication of HP’s annual results. A little over a year after the acquisition, the group provisions a charge of 8.8 billion dollars for et depreciation, including 5 billion for Autonomy.
Mike Lynch and other company alumni are immediately dropped off. The two camps have since been engaged in a fierce legal battle. HP claimed from the High Court of Justice in London a reimburt of these 5 billion dollars to the two ex-leaders of Autonomy.
With AFP
