UK extradites Autonomy co-founder Mike Lynch to US
Summary
Mike Lynch, co-founder of the UK software firm Autonomy, has been extradited to the United States to face criminal charges in a nearly 10-year legal battle and fall from grace for a man once hailed as Britain’s answer to Bill Gates. Appearing in court on Thursday, Lynch was ordered by a judge to pay a $100m bond, hand over his passport and be placed under 24-hour guard to secure his release. Once lauded by academics, scientists and politicians for setting up a software giant from his ground-breaking research at Cambridge University, Lynch has spent the last decade fighting lawsuits related to the HP takeover. A British judge ruled in January 2022 that Lynch had masterminded an elaborate fraud to inflate the value of Autonomy, meaning the Silicon Valley company substantially succeeded in its civil case. Lynch pleaded not guilty to the 17 counts he faces in the US, court documents showed, and a status conference will be held on May 19 to set a date for the trial.