British tech magnate Mike Lynch acquitted of fraud charges in $11 billion deal with Hewlett Packard
the trial finally began in mid-March. Lynch, 58, had been free on $100 million bail. Being accused of a massive fraud represented a dramatic turn in fortune for an entrepreneur once described as the Bill Gates of Britain — a title he seemed to live up to when he negotiated the Autonomy sale that generated a more than $800 million windfall for him.
The acquittal vindicates Lynch, who spent years fiercely denying he did anything wrong, while painting HP as a technological train wreck. It’s yet another setback for HP, which had spent years blaming Lynch for duping the company into a deal that deepened its troubles and stained a legacy dating back to the company's 1939 inception in a Silicon Valley garage. In a statement, Lynch said he was elated with the verdict and thanked the jury for poring over the facts in the complex case.
“I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field," Lynch said. The Justice Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Another former Autonomy finance executive, Stephen Chamberlain, faced fraud charges alongside Lynch during the complex trial.
The same jury acquitted Chamberlain, too. After prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses to the stand to help make their case, Lynch testified in his own defense over several days last month and occasionally spoke directly to the jurors while explaining various turns of British phrasing. Like his own lawyers, Lynch contended he did nothing wrong and argued that Whitman unjustly turned him and Autonomy into a scapegoat for HP’s own mismanagement and deteriorating financial condition.
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