Cleared UK tech tycoon feared he would die in US prison if convicted
The Guardian|July 29, 2024
The British tech tycoon Mike Lynch has said he thought he would die in a US jail if he had not been cleared of allegedly defrauding Hewlett-Packard over a multibillion-dollar business deal.
Mark Sweney
Cleared UK tech tycoon feared he would die in US prison if convicted

In his first interview since his acquittal last month on charges related to the $11.1bn (£8.6bn) purchase of his company Autonomy in 2011, the man once lauded as the UK's answer to Bill Gates said that his lung condition meant he doubted he would have survived a prison term.

He had been accused of duping the US technology company into overpaying for the software firm he founded. HP subsequently took an $8.8bn writedown of Autonomy's entire value 15 months after the deal was first disclosed, alleging it had discovered "serious accounting improprieties" and blaming Lynch for perpetrating a $5bn fraud, an accusation he denied.

The 59-year-old billionaire was cleared by a Californian court on 6 June of all 15 counts of fraud, which meant he avoided facing up to 25 years in a US prison.

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