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Former Autonomy chief executive Mike Lynch issued a assertion Thursday come after his acquittal of criminal charges , ending a 13 - year legal battle with Hewlett Packard that became one of Silicon Valley ’s biggest pseud cases . He was accuse of falsely balloon revenues at the U.K. startup ahead of Autonomy ’s $ 11 billion sale to HP in 2011 .
point out on the acquittal , Lynch ( project above , leave , when he appear at TechCrunch Disrupt ) tell in his statement : “ I am elated with today ’s verdict and thankful to the jury for their attention to the facts over the last ten weeks . My deepest thanks go to my legal squad for their tireless work on my behalf . I am attend forward to returning to the U.K. and get back to what I have a go at it most : my household and innovating in my field . ”
After a 12 - week visitation , the enterpriser was top of 15 reckoning of fraud and conspiracy that were brought against him in relation to the 2011 acquirement .
The victory for Lynch is notable in light of the fact that in the U.S. , in fiscal class 2022 , only 0.4 % of federal criminal case led to test and acquittal , according to the Pew Research Center , and only 12 % of all wire shammer prosecutions resulted in acquittal .
Christopher Morvillo and Brian Heberlig , legal advocate for Lynch , added in a statement : “ We are thrilled with the jury ’s verdict , which reflects a resonant rejection of the governance ’s profound overreach in this casing . The evidence presented at trial demonstrated conclusively that Mike Lynch is innocent . This finding of fact closes the book on a relentless 13 - year effort to pin HP ’s well - documented ineptitude on Dr Lynch . gratefully , the truth has ultimately rule . We thank Dr. Lynch for his trust throughout this ordeal and go for that he can now return home to England to restart his life and proceed innovate . ”
Lynch , 58 , was previously extradited to the U.S. and put under house hitch and 24 - hour surveillance ahead of the test . He long hold he was scapegoated by HP , claiming it botched the acquisition of Autonomy and by and by mismanaged the companionship ’s software assets .
Lynch made £ 500 million from the sales agreement of Autonomy to HP . But only a yr subsequently , HP wrote down its investment by $ 8.8 billion , say $ 5 billion of that write - down owed to practices employed by Autonomy ’s earlier direction squad that inflated Autonomy ’s value and misled potential purchaser into trust the company was far more worthful .
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Prosecutors accuse Lynch and Stephen Chamberlain , Autonomy ’s former frailty United States President of finance , of illegally inflate tax income ahead of the acquirement and cover high - tolerance computer software receipts inside unprofitable hardware sales .
In the test , Lynch successfully argued that he had not been involve in account statement and contract matters , rather focusing on technical and marketing issuance .
Although unsuccessfully arguing that the case should be heard in the U.K. , leave to his extradition , the U.S. panel clear Lynch on all count , along with Chamberlain , who was also on trial .
The U.S. attorney ’s office in San Francisco said : “ We acknowledge and prize the verdict . We would like to give thanks the jury for its attentiveness to the evidence the government present in this pillowcase . ”
Autonomy ’s sale to HP was seen as a defence of the U.K. ’s thriving tech scene , and the chopine ’s power to strain through amorphous database was , at the time , viewed as a way for HP to rebuild its flatlining hardware business .
Lynch co - founded Autonomy in 1996 out of a specialist package research group scream Cambridge Neurodynamics .
Awarded an OBE for inspection and repair to go-ahead in 2006 , Lynch became a U.K. government consultant who sat on the table of the BBC and the British Library , founded Invoke Capital VC , and invested in breakout cybersecurity company Darktrace .
