Mike Lynch can be extradited to face fraud charges in US over $11bn sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard, judge rules
Mike Lynch can be extradited to the United States to face fraud charges following the $11billion (£8bn) sale of Cambridge company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP), a judge has ruled.
The extradition still has to be approved by the home secretary to proceed and a lawyer for Dr Lynch said he intends to appeal if that happens.
The dispute dates back to the sale of the software company to HP in 2011, which resulted in “colossal financial losses” for the US firm, which wrote down its value by £6bn only a year later.
The US Department of Justice claims Dr Lynch, 56, deliberately overstated the value of his business, which specialised in software that sorted through large datasets.
Hewlett Packard argues the sale figure was inflated by “accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations”.
Dr Lynch was arrested in February 2020 and has been on bail ever since.
An extradition hearing took place in February 2021, when Mark Summers, outlining the case for the American government, told Westminster Magistrates’ Court: “This case is straightforward, even taking the most binary, defence-friendly analysis.
“This was an English company, cooking its books in England, making it appear what it wasn’t, and then persuading an American company to grossly overpay for it, based on those cooked books.
“The only unusual feature of this case was the titanic scale of the money involved.”
Dr Lynch denies any wrong-doing.
Alex Bailin QC, representing the father-of-two from Chelsea, who was formerly a scientific adviser to the UK government, argued that any criminal case ought to be heard in England.
He said in February: “The US is not the global marshal of the corporate world.
“We say this case belongs here in Britain. It concerns events, the majority of which involved the UK, it involved a British citizen (Mr Lynch) with strong lifelong links to the UK.”
He added: “Mr Lynch vehemently denies he was involved in any form of accounting wrongdoing, or fraud, or conspiracy or cover-up. But it ought to be examined by the English courts.”
Dr Lynch faces 17 criminal charges in the US including wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy to defraud. Supporters fear he faces a decade in prison in the US if convicted.
The hearing was adjourned to await the outcome of a $5billion civil trial brought in London by HP against Dr Lynch.
But district judge Michael Snow was told the High Court ruling was not due to be handed down for months. And ruling that Dr Lynch should be extradited, he said its outcome was of “limited significance in the case”.
Chris Morvillo, of Clifford Chance, the lawyer for Dr Lynch, said after the ruling today (July 22): “Dr Lynch is disappointed that the court has ruled against him without waiting for the High Court's judgment in the civil case that examined all these issues. Dr Lynch denies the charges against him.
“At the request of the US Department of Justice, the court has ruled that a British citizen who ran a British company listed on the London Stock Exchange should be extradited to America over allegations about his conduct in the UK.
“We say this case belongs in the UK. If the Home Secretary nonetheless decides to order extradition, Dr Lynch intends to appeal.”
The extradition treaty between the US and UK was signed in 2003, but has come under criticism in this country for being weighted in favour of the States.
Read more
2018: Mike Lynch quits posts after US files criminal charges
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