U.S. prosecutors alleged that Mr. Lynch executed an elaborate, multi-year scheme that involved retroactively fabricating sales figures and making false statements about Autonomy’s financial situation in public filings in order to trick HP into buying Autonomy for an excessive price, prosecutors said. Mr. Lynch himself walked away from the deal with at least $640 million in cash, prosecutors alleged.
After a lengthy legal battle over extradition, Lynch eventually faced a criminal trial in the United States in early 2024. He always denied the charges, but an acquittal was unlikely. In 2018, Autonomy’s CFO Sushoban Hussain was convicted of similar charges, and in 2022, Lynch lost a civil trial in the UK High Court, which found that Autonomy executives had fraudulently inflated the company’s reported revenues, profits and value.
But after a winding 12-week trial in federal court in San Francisco, Lynch was cleared of all charges by a jury and avoided a prison sentence of more than 20 years. In a statement issued after the trial, Lynch said she was “overjoyed” and “looks forward to returning to the UK and enjoying what she loves most – her family and innovating in her field.”
In a separate case, Lynch’s co-defendant, Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former vice president of finance, was also killed over the weekend after being hit by a car in Cambridgeshire, England.
In his first interview with The Times since his sentence was handed down, Lynch spoke about the strangeness of being given a “second life.” “The question is, what do you want to do with it?”
Andrew Cantor, Autonomy’s former chief operating officer, told WIRED in a statement that Lynch was “one of the most brilliant and compassionate people I have ever known,” adding, “No other British technology entrepreneur of our generation has influenced so many people. His passion for life, his knowledge and the people around him was an instant inspiration to all who met him. He will be deeply missed.”
In a tribute to Lynch provided to WIRED, Autonomy co-founder David Tabizel called his late partner an “incredible man” and “the rarest of entrepreneurs.”
“He was a legend, a genius, a gift to global business and above all a human being,” Tabizell said. “Britain’s Bill Gates? Not really. Britain’s Steve Jobs.”
Updated Aug. 22, 2024 at 12:30 p.m.: This story has been updated to include a tribute to Lynch from David Tabizell.
