Autonomy's Mike Lynch acquitted after US fraud trial brought by HP | TechCrunch

Light Autonomy chief govt Mike Lynch issued a press free up Thursday following his acquittal of criminal costs, ending a 13-year correct struggle with Hewlett-Packard that became with out a doubt one of Silicon Valley’s greatest fraud circumstances. He became as soon as accused of falsely inflating revenues at the UK startup before Autonomy’s $11 billion sale to HP in 2011.

Commenting on the acquittal, Lynch (pictured above, left, when he regarded at TechCrunch Disrupt) stated in his observation: “I am ecstatic with this day’s verdict and grateful to the jury for his or her consideration to the info over the closing ten weeks. My deepest thanks trek to my correct team for his or her tireless work on my behalf. I am looking ahead to returning to the UK and getting aid to what I love most: my family and innovating in my enviornment.”

After a 12-week trial, the entrepreneur became as soon as cleared of 15 counts of fraud and conspiracy that had been brought in opposition to him in terms of the 2011 acquisition.

The victory for Lynch is valuable in gentle of the reality that within the US, in fiscal year 2022, handiest 0.4% of federal criminal circumstances resulted in trial and acquittal, in step with the Pew Research Heart, and handiest 12% of all wire fraud prosecutions resulted in acquittal.

Christopher Morvillo and Brian Heberlig, correct counsel for Lynch, added in a press free up: “We are overjoyed with the jury’s verdict, which shows a convincing rejection of the manager’s profound overreach in this case. The proof equipped at trial demonstrated conclusively that Mike Lynch is innocent. This verdict closes the e book on a relentless 13-year effort to pin HP’s well-documented ineptitude on Dr Lynch. Fortunately, the reality has lastly prevailed. We thank Dr Lynch for his have confidence all the tactic by approach to this ordeal and hope that he can now return dwelling to England to resume his life and proceed innovating.”

Lynch, 58, became as soon as previously extradited to the US, and repair under dwelling arrest and 24-hour surveillance before the trial. He lengthy maintained he became as soon as scapegoated by HP, claiming it botched the acquisition of Autonomy, and later mismanaged the firm’s tool property.

Lynch made £500 million from the sale of Autonomy to HP. However handiest a year later, HP wrote down its funding by $8.8 billion, announcing $5 billion of that write-down owed to practices employed by Autonomy’s earlier administration team that inflated Autonomy’s price and misled doubtless investors into believing the firm became as soon as far more treasured.

Prosecutors accused Lynch and Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy’s feeble vice president of finance, of illegally inflating revenues before the acquisition and hiding excessive-margin tool earnings inside unprofitable hardware sales.

Within the trial, Lynch successfully argued that he had no longer been concerned about accounting and contract issues, as a replacement specializing in technical and advertising and marketing components.

Even though unsuccessfully arguing that the case also can serene be heard within the UK, leading to his extradition, the US jury exonerated Lynch on all counts, alongside with Chamberlain, who became as soon as also on trial.

The US attorney’s keep of job in San Francisco stated: “We acknowledge and respect the decision. We would prefer to thank the jury for its attentiveness to the proof the manager equipped in this case.”

Autonomy’s sale to HP became as soon as seen as a vindication of the UK’s booming tech scene, and the platform’s capacity to sift by approach to unstructured databases became as soon as, at the time, seen as a come for HP to rebuild its flat-lining hardware industry.

Lynch co-founded Autonomy in 1996 out of a specialist tool examine group known as Cambridge Neurodynamics.

Awarded an OBE for providers and products to enterprise in 2006, Lynch became a UK executive adviser who sat on the boards of the BBC and the British Library, founded the Invoke Capital VC, and invested in breakout cyber security firm Darktrace.