Autonomy co-founder Mike Lynch awaits High Court ruling on his appeal against extradition to the US to face fraud charges
Mike Lynch must await a ruling from High Court judges after appealing against extradition to the United States.
Lord Justice Lewis and Mr Justice Julian Knowles last week finished hearing the entrepreneur’s challenge to a decision by the then home secretary, Priti Patel, who approved Dr Lynch’s extradition to answer criminal fraud charges in January 2022.
Her decision came after a judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court ruled that Ms Patel could decide whether to order extradition.
Dr Lynch has appealed against that ruling by District Judge Michael Snow.
Lawyers representing the US government said Judge Snow made “correct” decisions after Dr Lynch lost his multibillion-dollar fraud action at London’s High Court over the sale of the Cambridge software company he co-founded, Autonomy, to Hewlett Packard (HP) in 2011.
Dr Lynch, who has a PhD in signal processing – a form of electrical engineering - was accused of deliberately overstating the value of his business before it was acquired by the American technology giant.
HP sued Dr Lynch and Autonomy’s former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, for about $5bn (£3.7bn), following its purchase of Autonomy for $11.1bn (£8.3bn) more than a decade ago.
A High Court judge who oversaw that trial said HP had “substantially succeeded” in its various claims against the two men – but is likely to receive “substantially less” than the amount claimed in damages.
Ms Patel had wanted to consider Mr Justice Hildyard’s ruling on HP’s claim before making an extradition decision.
Dr Lynch has denied all charges against him. Lord Justice Lewis and Mr Justice Julian Knowles were told that the civil litigation overseen by Mr Justice Hildyard had yet to conclude.
They heard that there had been no decision on the amount of damages and said they did not know whether Dr Lynch was going to appeal.
Dr Lynch has signalled his intention to appeal against Mr Justice Hildyard’s ruling.
