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 charges of criminal fraud.
Lynch, the co-founder of British cybersecurity firm Darktrace, faces allegations that he misled US firm Hewlett-Packard into overpaying when he reached an $11bn (£8.2bn) deal for his firm. of Software 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 UK civil fraud case against Lynch after a high court judge ruled that he had defrauded HP by manipulating Autonomy accounts to inflate the company’s value.
Then-Interior Secretary Priti Patel later approved Lynch’s extradition to face criminal trial in the US on 14 counts of conspiracy and fraud over claims that investors in HP lost billions due to his actions. She has always denied the accusations 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, must be extradited to the US to be court.
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Sushovan Hussain, the former CFO of Autonomy, is already serving jail time in the US after being found guilty of fraud related to the same deal.
