Mike Lynch, the UK tycoon who defeated US fraud charges, missing at sea
World
Mike Lynch, the UK tycoon who defeated US fraud charges, missing at sea
LONDON (Reuters) - Mike Lynch, the tech tycoon missing after his luxury yacht sank off Sicily, spent more than a decade building Britain's biggest software company and then almost as long again fighting fraud charges related to its multi-billion pound sale.
Lynch founded Autonomy from his ground-breaking research at Cambridge University in 1996, and was lauded by shareholders, scientists and politicians when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion 15 years later.
But in late 2012, HP stunned Wall Street and the City of London by alleging a massive accounting scandal at the business, and writing off $8.8 billion of its value.
Lynch, known for an abrasive intellectual charm, said HP did not know what it was doing with Autonomy, which searched and organised data using patented algorithms based on a mathematics developed in the 18th Century by Reverend Thomas Bayes.
He spent the next 12 years in courts trying to clear his name, locked in some of the biggest legal battles in corporate history.
HP pursued Lynch in London's High Court for $5 billion. It won most of its case in 2022 and is still awaiting the award of damages.
The judge found that Lynch and another colleague had fraudulently concealed a "fire sale" of hardware and engaged in convoluted reselling schemes to mask a shortfall in sales of Autonomy's software, the business HP coveted.
We are actively moving forward in conversation with the army and with the
US authorities filed criminal charges including wire fraud and conspiracy against Lynch and sought his extradition.
The British government came under pressure from Lynch's supporters to block the application. If found guilty, Lynch could have faced decades in jail.
