Mike Lynch, the billionaire tech entrepreneur once lauded as Britain’s Bill Gates, has been extradited weeks after losing an appeal to block being forced to face criminal fraud charges in the US.
Lynch 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. He denies any wrongdoing.
Lynch, the founding investor of the British cybersecurity firm Darktrace, had said he was considering a last-ditch appeal to the European court of human rights after the high court ruling in London last month.
“On 21 April, the high court refused Dr Lynch’s permission to appeal his extradition,” a spokesperson for the Home Office said. “As a result, the normal 28-day statutory deadline for surrender to the US applies. Dr Lynch was extradited to the US on 11 May.”
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 because of his actions.
Lynch, who could face a maximum prison sentence of 25 years if found guilty, has always denied the allegations and any wrongdoing.
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.
Legal experts had said that Lynch’s chances of succeeding in blocking the extradition by turning to European courts were low.
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The criminal defence law firm Corker Binning said that only 8% of applications to the ECHR in such cases – seeking a Rule 39 order to stop the UK extradition until it has considered the case – were successful last year.
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