UK tech founder Mike Lynch’s lawyers seek acquittal at US fraud trial

SAN FRANCISCO : Mike Lynch’s attorneys on Monday portrayed the British tech pioneer as a savvy entrepreneur while prosecutors in a San Francisco court labeled him a greedy fraudster, and jurors will quickly weigh allegations that Lynch defrauded Hewlett-Packard in its $11 billion acquisition of his tool company.

The 2011 deal became one amongst the ideal British tech deals at the time, but hasty went bitter. HP wrote down Autonomy’s price by $8.8 billion internal a one year of the acquisition.

Assistant U.S. Legal expert Robert Leach suggested jurors in closing arguments that they’ll maintain to unruffled save no longer maintain any cheap doubt there became fraud at Autonomy, and that Lynch directed it.

The federal prosecutor entreated jurors to practice the money, announcing Lynch had made 500 million pounds ($640 million) from the HP deal.

“Dr. Lynch had 500 million causes to defraud HP. It tells you volumes about who became to blame and who benefited from this,” Leach acknowledged.

Lynch and ragged Autonomy finance govt Stephen Chamberlain face costs of fraud and conspiracy for allegedly scheming to inflate the company’s earnings starting in 2009, partly to entice a buyer.

The Cambridge College-trained entrepreneur took the stand in his bear protection at the trial, denying wrongdoing and telling jurors HP botched the 2 companies’ integration.

Lynch’s criminal expert Brian Heberlig suggested jurors on Monday that the testimony became devastating to the prosecution’s case.

“It became bigger than cheap doubt. It became reality,” he acknowledged, as jurors noticed a spacious picture of Lynch overlaid with the descriptions of the tech founder in conjunction with “vivid” and “involving by the lengthy ride.”

Lynch’s protection team scored a fetch closing week when U.S. District Determine Charles Breyer threw out one depend of securities fraud as no longer supported by the evidence. Lynch unruffled faces one depend of conspiracy and 14 counts of wire fraud.

Prosecutors declare the pair padded Autonomy’s funds in lots of solutions, in conjunction with help-dated agreements and “spherical-time out” deals that fronted money to customers thru fraudulent contracts.

On the trial, which began in mid-March, jurors maintain heard from bigger than 30 executive witnesses in conjunction with Leo Apotheker, the ragged HP CEO who became fired weeks after the Autonomy deal became announced.

Lynch’s correct team has argued that HP became so alive to to invent Autonomy before attainable opponents that it rushed thru due diligence before the sale.

On the stand, Lynch acknowledged he had been involving by tech points, and entrusted money matters and the accounting choices at arena to Sushovan Hussain, Autonomy’s then-chief monetary officer.

Hussain became one by one convicted in 2018 at a trial within the the same court on costs of conspiracy, wire fraud and securities fraud related to the contend with HP. He became released from U.S. detention heart in January after serving a 5-one year sentence.

Lynch became one amongst the UK’s leading tech entrepreneurs, drawing comparisons to Apple cofounder Steve Jobs and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.

The Autonomy acquisition became intended to gas HP’s tool alternate. As an different, it spawned a bunch of bitter and expensive correct battles.

HP largely won a civil lawsuit against Lynch and Hussain in London in 2022, though damages maintain no longer but been decided. The company is within the hunt for $4 billion.

Closing arguments within the case are anticipated to save on Tuesday before the jury begins deliberations.

(This memoir has been refiled to add dropped the observe ‘attorneys’ within the headline)