Hewlett-Packard (HP) has won its six-year civil fraud case against UK tech tycoon, Mike Lynch, after a high court judge ruled that Lynch deceived the US firm into paying $11 billion for his software firm Autonomy in 2011.
Lynch was found to have defrauded HP by manipulating Autonomy’s accounts to inflate the value his firm. On the other hand, Lynch who has always denied the accusation said that he would appeal.
“Claimants have substantially succeeded in their claims in this proceeding,” said Mr Justice Hildyard. His conclusions, read out at the High Court in London, come more than two years after the start of what was considered to be the UK's biggest civil fraud trial, which was heard over nine months in 2019.
He said the damages were likely to be significantly less than the $5 billion claimed by Hewlett-Packard (HP) and successor companies, while he also cast doubt on the reliability of some of the US firm’s witnesses.
Nonetheless, he ruled that HP had been induced into overpaying for the takeover, due to fraud perpetrated by Lynch and Autonomy’s former CFO, Sushovan Hussain, who is currently serving his 5 years sentence in the US after being convicted in April 2018 of wire fraud and other crimes related to Autonomy's sale.
The judge said the amount of damages to be paid would be dealt with at a later date.
It's worth noting that Lynch faces charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy in a federal court over the sale of Autonomy in the US. He is still awaiting a ruling from the Home Office on whether he can be extradited to the US to face trial over claims that he defrauded investors in HP.
