Priti Patel orders extradition of tech billionaire Mike Lynch

Priti Patel has requested the British tech billionaire Mike Lynch to be extradited to the US to face felony fraud rates around the $11bn (£8.2bn) sale of his software enterprise Autonomy.

The Household Secretary authorised a ruling that Mr Lynch should really appear in a US court to face claims that he illegally inflated the former FTSE 100 company’s sale to Hewlett Packard in 2011.

A Property Place of work spokesman mentioned: “On January 28, next thought by the courts, the extradition of Michael Lynch to the US was requested.”

Chris Morvillo of Clifford Possibility, Mr Lynch’s lawyer, stated that Mr Lynch “firmly denies the charges introduced from him in the US and will keep on to struggle to build his innocence”. 

“He is a British citizen who ran a British enterprise in Britain matter to British legal guidelines and policies and that is exactly where the make a difference really should be resolved. This is not the close of the struggle — significantly from it,” he claimed. 

Mr Morvillo included that Mr Lynch will now file an appeal to the Large Courtroom in London.

The Property Workplace purchase arrived just hrs just after Mr Lynch shed a $5bn Superior Court docket fraud circumstance over the sale, in a defeat that promotions a blow to his probabilities of correctly interesting the extradition buy.

A choose stated HP had “substantially succeeded” in its fraud scenario versus Mr Lynch and his former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, indicating the pair had been “dishonest” and “obsessed” with propping up Autonomy’s share rate.

The US has billed Mr Lynch with 17 counts of fraud above Autonomy’s sale, saying he illegally exaggerated revenues in advance of the offer. Mr Hussain has been uncovered responsible of fraud in the US and is serving a five-calendar year jail sentence. 

Both have denied the promises and Mr Lynch is preventing extradition.

Last 12 months, a choose stated that Mr Lynch should be despatched to the US and gave Ms Patel two months to approve the buy. But the Dwelling Place of work had consistently delayed a final decision, indicating it required to see the end result of the civil situation.

Hewlett Packard, now recognized as HPE, sued Mr Lynch and Mr Hussain in London in 2015 in what grew to become Britain’s most significant fraud trial.

Mr Justice Hildyard, offering a summary of his long-awaited judgment yesterday, reported that Mr Lynch experienced engaged in “contrived” specials with “no professional substance” to mislead buyers, auditors and the company’s own directors more than Autonomy’s efficiency.