A British businessman said he only won a fraud case in the U.S because he had deep enough pockets to continue to defend himself in a fraud trial.
Mike Lynch was recently cleared of fraud charges over the sale of his company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard.
He faced up to 20 years in prison if he was found guilty of the 17 charges over the sale of the tech company.
Speaking to the BBC, he stressed he always maintained his innocence.However, he said it was only his considerable financial resources that allowed him to continue to defend himself.
He said: “You shouldn’t need to have funds to protect yourself as a British citizen. “The reason I’m sitting here, let’s be honest, is not only because I was innocent… but because I had enough money not to be swept away by a process that’s set up to sweep you away.”
Mr. Lynch pointed out most people, even if they sold all their assets, would exhaust their funds in a matter of months, a situation he believes “has to change.”
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The trial
Mr. Lynch co-founded Autonomy in Cambridge in 1996. The software company expanded rapidly, becoming one of the UK’s leading tech firms. Its success once earned Mr. Lynch the nickname “Britain’s Bill Gates.”
In 2011, the hardware giant Hewlett-Packard acquired the firm for $11 billion (£8.6 billion).Mr Lynch made $500 million from the deal. However, the acquisition soon began to unravel as questions arose about the hefty price tag.
Just a year later, HP wrote down Autonomy’s value by $8.8 billion, claiming Mr. Lynch had exaggerated the company’s worth. This led to years of legal battles, and in 2018, US prosecutors filed charges against Mr. Lynch.
They accused him of inflating the company’s value through backdated agreements to misrepresent sales, concealing its loss-making hardware resale business, and intimidating or paying off individuals who raised concerns.He fought the U.S’s move to hold the trial on its soil, but was eventually extradited and put on trial in 2022.
He was acquitted of the charges in June.
“Is it right to be sending someone to another country, especially one which has the justice system issues of the US? A US prosecutor has far more control over you than your local bobby in the British system.”
During the trial, he testified he was not involved in the alleged transactions.His legal team argued HP had failed to conduct proper due diligence before the deal.
Another former finance executive at Autonomy, Stephen Chamberlain, was also found not guilty.
Mr. Lynch described awaiting his verdict as “indescribable” and akin to standing “between two universes.”
He said: “Until you hear the words, you can’t call it.”
After he was cleared, Mr. Lynch criticized the government for allowing his extradition under a treaty that, according to critics like him, makes it too easy for British citizens to be tried in the US.
He said: “The British government needs to defend its citizens.
“Is it right to be sending someone to another country, especially one which has the justice system issues of the US? A US prosecutor has far more control over you than your local bobby in the British system.”
Back to Innovating
The charges Mr. Lynch was cleared of are not the only legal proceedings stemming from the sale of Autonomy. In 2019, Autonomy’s former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain was jailed for five years and fined millions of dollars on 16 counts of fraud, securities fraud, and other charges.
In 2022, HP won a civil fraud case against Mr. Lynch and Hussain in London’s High Court, and it is now reportedly seeking $4 billion. Mr. Lynch attributed this outcome to the judge in the case being presented with untested evidence from the US.
Despite these challenges, Mr. Lynch now aims to refocus on his tech career, expressing interest in how AI can be utilized in the legal field and to assist with hearing loss.
“I want to get back to what I love doing, which is innovating,” he said.
