The BBC reports that British tech tycoon Mike Lynch “has been cleared of fraud charges he faced in the U.S. over the $11bn (£8.6bn) sale of his software firm to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.”
A jury in San Francisco found him not guilty on all counts in a stunning victory for Mr Lynch, who had been accused of inflating the value of Autonomy, his company, ahead of its sale. Mr Lynch, who faced more than 20 years in prison if convicted, had denied the charges and took the stand to defend himself.
In his testimony, he maintained he had focused on technology not accounting, distancing himself from other executives, including the company’s former chief financial officer who was already successfully prosecuted for fraud… Mr Lynch made £500m from the sale. Just a year later, HP wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8bn. Years of legal battles followed. The company’s chief financial