[ad_1]
The United States has filed a lawsuit against Mike Lynch, one of the UK's top technology executives and investors, for the sale of the British software company Autonomy's 11 billion British dollars to Hewlett-Packard. seven years ago.
The charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years of imprisonment, include 14 counts of conspiracy and fraud. The United States also attempted to force Mr. Lynch to lose $ 815 million in gains made through the sale of his Autonomy product, which he founded and operated.
The Department of Justice case, which was filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco, concludes a six-year investigation into one of the largest alleged corporate fraud cases in recent years. He also appoints Stephen Chamberlain, former Finance Officer of Autonomy.
Sushovan Hussain, the former chief financial officer of Autonomy, was sentenced in the United States for similar offenses earlier this year. Hussain is about to reverse the decision.
The ministries of justice have accused MM. Lynch and Chamberlain have inflated the apparent financial results of Autonomy from the beginning of 2009 to October 2011, when HP's acquisition was announced. The indictment, which includes a count of conspiracy and 13 counts of fraud, lists 28 cases in which former autonomy officials allegedly made false statements.
Lynch sold the company to Hewlett-Packard for $ 11 billion in 2011. A year later, Meg Whitman, then CEO of HP, accused him, along with other senior executives of Autonomy, having deliberately skewed the financial performance of the company, resulting in a $ 8.8 billion write-down.
My Lynch's lawyers described the indictment as "a travesty of justice" and said the software contractor "would vigorously defend the charges against him". Chris Morvillo of Clifford Chance and Reid Weingarten of Steptoe & Johnson said in a statement: "The claims constitute a commercial dispute over the application of British accounting standards, which is the subject of a lawsuit. a civil case with HP in English courts, where it belongs. "
Mr. Lynch has always claimed that Ms. Whitman had tried to make him a scapegoat for HP's mismanagement, which he said had harmed the area of autonomy after the acquisition. He also stated that the elements of the Autonomy accounts that HP had described as serious anomalies were in fact the result of differences between US and international accounting standards.
However, the US indictment accuses MM. Lynch and Chamberlain have "artificially inflated the revenues" of the company, and then made "false and misleading statements" to conceal the fact. This included backdated transactions to report sales earlier; reservation revenues subject to "return" agreements providing for the return of money to the customer; and the incorrect application of all US and international accounting standards tests to determine when revenue should be recognized.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a successor to HP, issued a statement in which it welcomed the charges. "HPE believes that the facts revealed in this case will further demonstrate the harm done to Dr. Lynch, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Hussain and others in HP, and hope that justice will be restored," said -he declares.
Lynch and Hussain sued $ 5.1 billion in a British court, but the case was suspended pending the outcome of the US criminal investigation. The Serious Fraud Office of the United Kingdom dropped its own investigation into an alleged fraud related to self-sufficiency in 2015, claiming that it had "insufficient evidence for a realistic conviction perspective".
Since leaving Autonomy, Mr. Lynch has reinvented himself as a technology investor by launching new businesses through his Invoke Capital vehicle. Darktrace is a cybersecurity company that it helped launch in 2013 and has since attracted investments from KKR and Summit Partners.
Mr. Lynch is a member of the British Government's Science and Technology Council, which advises the Prime Minister and a member of the Royal Society. Previously, he had held consulting positions at the BBC and the British Library. In 2006, he received an OBE.
Source link
