Renowned UK tech entrepreneur, Mike Lynch, has been extradited to the US to face criminal fraud charges, after losing his years’ long appeal against extradition.
The billionaire founder of Autonomy lost his High Court appeal against extradition last month, and now faces a criminal trial in California for 17 charges which include conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud associated to Hewlett Packard’s 2011 takeover of his company, Autonomy. The takeover valued the company at $11 billion.
The case is based on accusations that Autonomy’s accounts were manipulated, leading to HP overpaying for the UK software group by $5 billion. Autonomy’s former CFO, Sushovan Hussain, was convicted of 16 counts of wire and securities fraud over the same deal in 2018 and is currently serving five years in prison. If convicted, Lynch could face up to 20 years in prison.
Shortly after arriving in San Francisco, a California judge ordered Lynch to pay a $100 million bail bond secured by $50 million in cash.