Mike Lynch, the tech entrepreneur once hailed as Britain’s answer to Bill Gates, has lost an appeal against extradition to the US to answer criminal fraud charges.
Lynch, the co-founder of the British cybersecurity firm Darktrace, is facing allegations that he duped the US firm Hewlett-Packard into overpaying when it struck an $11bn deal (£8.2bn) for his software firm Autonomy in 2011.
Two high court judges considered Mike Lynch’s challenge at a recent hearing in London and on Friday issued a ruling rejecting his appeal against extradition to face the charges.
Last year, Hewlett-Packard won a six-year civil fraud case in the UK against Lynch after a high court judge ruled that he had defrauded HP by manipulating Autonomy’s accounts to inflate the value of the company.
The then home secretary, Priti Patel, subsequently approved the extradition of Lynch to face criminal trial in the US for 14 counts of conspiracy and fraud over claims that investors in HP lost billions due to his actions. He has always denied the allegations and any wrongdoing.
Lord Justice Lewis and Justice Julian Knowles ruled on Friday that Lynch, who made £500m from the sale to HP and was hailed as one of Britain’s few global tech champions, should be extradited to the US to stand trial.
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Sushovan Hussain, Autonomy’s former finance director, is already serving time in jail in the US after being found guilty of fraud relating to the same deal.
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