Former Autonomy CEO Dr. Mike Lynch made the assertion Thursday after being acquitted of felony expenses, ending a 13-year authorized battle with Hewlett-Packard that grew to become one in every of Silicon Valley’s largest fraud instances. He was accused of falsely inflating the British startup’s income earlier than it was bought to HP for $11 billion in 2011.
Commenting on the acquittal, Dr Lynch (pictured above left talking at TechCrunch Disrupt) stated: “I’m delighted with as we speak’s verdict and am grateful to the jury for his or her consideration to the details over the previous ten weeks. I’m very grateful to my authorized group for his or her tireless work on my behalf. I am wanting ahead to returning to the UK and getting again to what I like most: my household and innovating in my discipline.”
After a 12-week trial, the businessman was cleared of 15 counts of fraud and conspiracy introduced towards him in reference to the 2011 acquisition.
Lynch’s victory is notable in gentle of the truth that within the U.S., solely 0.4% of federal felony instances (in fiscal 12 months 2022, based on the Pew Analysis Heart) result in a trial and acquittal, and solely 12% of all felony instances involving main fraud expenses result in convictions. justification.
Christopher Morvilla and Brian Heberlig, authorized counsel for Dr. Lynch, added in an announcement: “We’re delighted with the jury’s verdict, which displays a powerful rejection of gross authorities overreach on this case. The proof introduced at trial conclusively confirmed that Mike Lynch was harmless. This verdict closes the e-book on HP’s relentless 13-year effort to pin the well-documented ineptitude of Dr. Lynch. Luckily, the reality lastly prevailed. We thank Dr Lynch for his belief all through this ordeal and hope that he can now return house to England to rebuild his life and proceed to innovate.”
Lynch, 58, was beforehand extradited to america and positioned underneath home arrest underneath 24-hour surveillance forward of his trial. He has lengthy argued that HP scapegoated him, alleging that it botched the Autonomy acquisition and later mismanaged the corporate’s software program property.
Mr Lynch made £500m from the sale of Autonomy to HP. However only a 12 months later, HP reduce its funding by $8.8 billion and slashed the worth by $5 billion to Autonomy’s so-called income inflation, it claimed on the time.
Prosecutors accused Lynch and Chamberlain of illegally inflating pre-acquisition revenues and concealing extremely worthwhile software program revenues inside unprofitable {hardware} gross sales.
At trial, Lynch efficiently argued that he was not concerned in accounting and contractual issues, focusing as an alternative on technical and advertising and marketing issues.
Though unsuccessfully arguing that the case must be tried in Britain, resulting in his extradition, a US jury acquitted Lynch on all counts, together with Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former vp of finance, who was additionally on trial.
The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in San Francisco stated: “We acknowledge and respect the decision. We want to thank the jury for his or her consideration of the federal government’s proof on this case.”
The sale of Autonomy to HP was a testomony to the speedy progress of the UK tech scene, and the platform’s skill to sift by unstructured databases was seen on the time as a manner for HP to revive its flat-panel {hardware} enterprise.
Lynch co-founded Autonomy in 1996 from a software program analysis group known as Cambridge Neurodynamics.
Awarded an OBE for companies to entrepreneurship in 2006, Lynch grew to become an adviser to the UK authorities, sat on the boards of the BBC and the British Library, based Invoke Capital VC and invested in cyber safety firm Darktrace.
