Priti Patel orders extradition of tech billionaire Mike Lynch

Priti Patel has purchased the British tech billionaire Mike Lynch to be extradited to the US to encounter felony fraud charges in excess of the $11bn (£8.2bn) sale of his software firm Autonomy.

The Property Secretary approved a ruling that Mr Lynch should really seem in a US court to deal with statements that he illegally inflated the previous FTSE 100 company’s sale to Hewlett Packard in 2011.

A Household Place of work spokesman mentioned: “On January 28, adhering to thing to consider by the courts, the extradition of Michael Lynch to the US was purchased.”

Chris Morvillo of Clifford Chance, Mr Lynch’s lawyer, mentioned that Mr Lynch “firmly denies the costs introduced versus him in the US and will continue on to fight to create his innocence”. 

“He is a British citizen who ran a British organization in Britain subject matter to British rules and principles and that is the place the make any difference must be solved. This is not the finish of the fight — far from it,” he explained. 

Mr Morvillo added that Mr Lynch will now file an appeal to the Substantial Court docket in London.

The Property Place of work purchase arrived just several hours right after Mr Lynch missing a $5bn Large Court docket fraud situation in excess of the sale, in a defeat that offers a blow to his odds of successfully interesting the extradition purchase.

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

The US has charged Mr Lynch with 17 counts of fraud more than Autonomy’s sale, declaring he illegally exaggerated revenues ahead of the deal. Mr Hussain has been located responsible of fraud in the US and is serving a 5-calendar year jail sentence. 

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

Very last year, a decide said that Mr Lynch really should be sent to the US and gave Ms Patel two months to approve the purchase. But the House Business experienced frequently delayed a decision, declaring it desired to see the end result of the civil scenario.

Hewlett Packard, now recognised as HPE, sued Mr Lynch and Mr Hussain in London in 2015 in what turned Britain’s most important fraud trial.

Mr Justice Hildyard, providing a summary of his very long-awaited judgment yesterday, explained that Mr Lynch had engaged in “contrived” offers with “no industrial substance” to mislead traders, auditors and the company’s own administrators over Autonomy’s functionality.