On Thursday morning in California, after less than two days of deliberations, jurors in a San Francisco courtroom told the judge they had a unanimous verdict.
21 minutes later, the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was ready to learn his fate.
As jurors read out their decision, it became clear that Lynch – once feted as one of Britain’s most successful technology entrepreneurs – had scored a stunning victory.
The founder of the software company Autonomy and his co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain were found not guilty on 15 charges of wire fraud and conspiracy over the £7bn sale of the company to Hewlett Packard in 2011.
The victory vindicates Lynch’s decision to fight the charges, even with the odds stacked against him. Only 0.4pc of US federal defendants are acquitted at trial. The vast majority – 90pc – plead guilty, such is the force of the American justice system.
But for Lynch, fighting was the only option. The 58-year-old Cambridge PhD graduate had spent 12 years attempting to clear his name, and six challenging the US justice system.
HP alleges accounting irregularities
When he sold Autonomy, a software company that specialised in analysing data, to HP, it was one of the biggest ever deals involving a British tech company. Lynch – dubbed the UK’s Bill Gates – called it a “momentous day”.
But a year later, HP – under new management – wrote down almost all the value of the deal, alleging “serious accounting improprieties” and “outright misrepresentations” from Autonomy’s former executives.
The claims prompted an angry denial from Lynch, who said HP had ruined a “world leader”.
A few months later, the Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation into the claims, while HP prepared a $5bn lawsuit against Lynch in the English courts.
Yet, things initially appeared to move on. The SFO dropped its investigation in 2015, and Lynch became a founding investor in Darktrace, one of Britain’s rising tech stars. He subsequently served on the Prime Minister’s Science and Technology Council under both David Cameron and Theresa May.
US government accuses Lynch of fraud
Worse was to come, however. In 2018, Sushovan Hussain, Lynch’s chief financial officer at Autonomy, was found guilty of fraud in the US for his role in the sale. And months later, Lynch himself was indicted, accused of inflating the company’s revenues to trick HP into overpaying.
The charges upended Lynch’s status as a leading entrepreneur, transforming him from a successful businessman to an alleged criminal. He was forced to resign from Darktrace’s board, the Government’s science council and from committees at the Royal Society.
But unlike Hussain, who had voluntarily travelled to the US to fight the charges, Lynch dug in. He declined to travel to San Francisco to attend hearings, forcing the US government to lodge extradition proceedings in 2019.
However, a series of setbacks followed. Over the course of 2019, Lynch spent 93 days in the English High Court, including 20 days in the witness box as part of the civil trial. Three years later, Mr Justice Hildyard found Lynch and Hussain liable for fraud (damages are yet to be awarded).
The Autonomy founder was also unsuccessful in fighting extradition, culminating in then Home Secretary Priti Patel ordering his transfer to the US in 2022. Mr Lynch eventually arrived on US soil last May, being forced to wear an ankle tag and followed by armed security since.
Eventual victory
Six years after he was first charged, Lynch’s trial eventually started, with US prosecutors accusing him of masterminding a “multiyear, multilayered fraud” that personally netted him £500m.
Lynch’s legal team had faced a series of challenges during the case, with certain evidence not permitted by the court and motions for a mistrial denied.
However, in the final days of the 11-week trial, Lynch himself took the stand. He argued that the US was spinning a false picture of his company and former colleagues, claiming that the spectacle was “surreal”. Lawyers for the defence at times called the prosecution’s conduct “egregious” and “highly improper”.
Lynch sought to present himself as a visionary technician, divorced from accounting matters, and markedly different to the domineering boss that US attorneys had claimed.
His lawyers appeared pleased with his performance, but even so, the jury’s total acquittal on Thursday came as a shock.
For Lynch, however, it was vindication after more than a decade of seeking to clear his name.
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