Darktrace Founder Mike Lynch Extradited To US To Face Fraud Charges

Mike Lynch, a well-known UK tech entrepreneur, has been sent to the US to face fraud charges. He lost his case against extradition, which took years.

The wealthy founder of Autonomy lost his High Court appeal against extradition last month. He now faces a criminal trial in California on 17 charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, related to Hewlett-Packard’s 2011 takeover of his company, Autonomy. The company was worth $11 billion before the takeover.

The case is based on claims that Autonomy’s books were tampered with, which caused HP to overpay $5 billion for the UK software group. Sushovan Hussain, the former CFO of Autonomy, was found guilty of 16 counts of wire and securities fraud in 2018 because of the same deal. He is now spending five years in prison. Lynch could spend up to 20 years in jail if she is found guilty.

Shortly after Lynch got to San Francisco, a judge in California told him he had to pay a bail bond of $100 million, backed by $50 million in cash.