Autonomy’s Mike Lynch was acquitted following a U.S. fraud trial brought by HP

Former Autonomy CEO Dr. Mike Lynch issued a statement Thursday after being acquitted of criminal charges, ending a 13-year legal battle with Hewlett-Packard that became certainly one of Silicon Valley’s biggest fraud cases. He was accused of falsely inflating the British startup’s revenue before its $11 billion sale to HP in 2011.

Commenting on the acquittal, Dr. Lynch (pictured above left as he appeared on the TechCrunch Disrupt conference) said: “I am thrilled with today’s verdict and grateful to the jury for the attention they have paid to the facts over the past ten weeks. My deepest thanks go to my legal team for working tirelessly on my behalf. I can’t wait to return to the UK and get back to what I love most: my family and innovation in my field.”

After a 12-week trial, the entrepreneur was cleared of 15 counts of fraud and conspiracy brought against him in reference to the 2011 takeover.

Lynch’s victory is notable in light of the indisputable fact that within the U.S., only 0.4% of federal criminal cases (in fiscal yr 2022, in line with the Pew Research Center) resulted in trial and acquittal, and only 12% of all Art. the foremost charge of wire fraud ends in acquittal.

Christopher Morvillo and Brian Heberlig, Dr. Lynch’s legal counsel, added in a statement: “We are delighted with the jury’s verdict, which reflects a strong rejection of the government’s deep dive into this case. The evidence presented at trial conclusively established that Mike Lynch was innocent. This verdict closes the book on a relentless 13-year effort to pin HP’s well-documented ineptitude on Dr. Lynch. Fortunately, the truth finally won. We thank Dr. Lynch for his confidence in this ordeal and hope that he will now be able to return home to England to resume his life and continue his innovations.”

Lynch (58) was previously extradited to the United States and placed under house arrest under 24-hour supervision before his trial. He has long maintained that HP scapegoated him, saying it botched its acquisition of Autonomy and later mismanaged the corporate’s software.

Lynch made £500m from selling Autonomy to HP. However, just a yr later, HP reduced the worth of its investment by $8.8 billion and lost $5 billion attributable to the so-called Autonomy’s revenue inflation, he claimed on the time.

Prosecutors accused Lynch and Chamberlain of illegally inflating pre-acquisition revenues and hiding high-margin software revenues in unprofitable hardware sales.

During the trial, Lynch successfully argued that he was not concerned with accounting and contractual matters, as a substitute specializing in technical and marketing matters.

Although an American jury argued unsuccessfully that the case needs to be tried within the UK, resulting in his extradition, it acquitted Lynch of all charges, together with Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former vice chairman of finance, who was also tried.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco said: “We acknowledge and respect the decision. We would love to thank the jury for paying attention to the evidence presented by the federal government on this case.”

The sale of Autonomy to HP was seen as validation of the booming UK tech scene, and the platform’s ability to mine unstructured databases was then seen as a way for HP to rebuild its shaky hardware business.

Lynch co-founded Autonomy in 1996 from a research group specializing in software called Cambridge Neurodynamics.

Awarded an OBE for services to enterprise in 2006, Lynch became an adviser to the UK government, sat on the boards of the BBC and the British Library, founded Invoke Capital VC and invested within the groundbreaking cybersecurity company Darktrace.