- Representatives and prosecutors say Lynch was acquitted of all 15 charges.
British businessman Mike Lynch
British businessman Mike Lynch was last night cleared of fraud by a US court in connection with the multi-million dollar sale of his software company.
The 58-year-old, who was extradited to the United States last year to stand trial, was acquitted along with former financial executive Stephen Chamberlain.
The San Francisco jury’s verdict marks a major victory for Dr Lynch, who has been dogged by legal problems since the disastrous sale of his company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $11.7bn (£8.3bn). ).
Lynch was accused of deliberately overstating the value of Autonomy, a company he founded in Cambridge in 1996, before it was acquired by the US technology company in 2011.
His team always denied any wrongdoing, arguing that HP had not completed enough due diligence and did not understand what it was buying.
Lynch’s representatives and prosecutors said Dr. Lynch was acquitted of all 15 charges: one count of conspiracy and 14 counts of wire fraud, each related to specific transactions or communications.
Chamberlain, who faced the same charges at trial along with Lynch, was also acquitted of all charges, Lynch’s representative said.
A spokesman for the US attorney’s office in San Francisco said: ‘We recognize and respect the verdict.
“We would like to thank the jury for their attention to the evidence the government presented in this case.”
Dr Lynch previously served on a scientific group advising the Prime Minister and was awarded an OBE for services to business in 2006.