Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a technology giant, won a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against a British businessman it accused of fraud after buying his software company Autonomy a decade ago.
The ruling by the UK’s High Court also eliminates a roadblock in the way of Autonomy’s creator, British entrepreneur Michael Lynch, being extradited to the United States.
Hewlett Packard purchased Autonomy for $11 billion in 2011, but was forced to write off the majority of the company’s worth the following year, sparking a boardroom shakeup in the United States.
Lynch and Autonomy’s former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was charged in the lawsuit of artificially inflating the company’s sales and committing “deliberate deception over a sustained period of time.”
HP has “largely won” its claim for $5 billion in damages against the couple, according to High Court judge Robert Hildyard, who provided a summary of his findings in court.
The ruling was “disappointing,” according to Lynch’s legal team, and he intends to appeal.
In a statement, his lawyers said, “We will review the complete judgement over the coming weeks.” “We are aware of the judge’s reservations about the credibility of certain of HP’s witnesses. We also highlight the judge’s anticipation that HP will suffer a much less loss than the $5 billion claimed.”
The case, which is thought to be the UK’s largest civil fraud trial, lasted nine months in court in 2019. Hussain had already been convicted and sentenced to five years in jail in a US court.
Lynch has been fighting extradition to the United States, where he faces allegations of wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to defraud, among other things.
He has denied the charges, and his lawyers have stated that any criminal procedures in England should be brought against him. The extradition treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States allows judges to refuse to hand over a suspect if the majority of the alleged misconduct occurred in the United Kingdom.
Priti Patel, the UK Home Secretary, has until midnight Friday to make a decision on whether or not to consider the court’s decision while evaluating the extradition request.
“We are glad that the judge has held (Lynch and Hussain) accountable,” Hewlett Packard Enterprise remarked. After being broken off from Hewlett-Packard Co., which was renamed HP Inc. and kept the personal computer and printer business, the information technology company was founded in 2015.
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