Latest news with #Hildyard
22-07-2025
- Business
UK court says HPE owed more than $940 million in fraud case against late tech tycoon Mike Lynch
LONDON -- Hewlett Packard is owed more than 700 million pounds ($943 million) from British tech tycoon Mike Lynch's estate and his former finance director after they lost a fraud case involving Lynch's software company, a U.K. High Court judge ruled on Tuesday. The court's decision comes nearly a year after Lynch was killed when his superyacht sank off Sicily, where he had gathered with friends and family to celebrate his acquittal months earlier in a separate U.S. criminal trial. The U.S. tech company, now known as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, had accused Lynch of fraud and conspiracy after it bought Lynch's company, Autonomy Corp., for $11 billion. HPE also took Lynch to court in the U.K., seeking up to $4 billion in damages in a civil case. The High Court had ruled mostly in HPE's favor in 2022, but the judge had said that the amount awarded would be 'substantially less' than the company was seeking. Judge Robert Hildyard was originally due to issue a draft ruling in September but delayed it after Lynch's yacht, the Bayesian, sank in the storm off Sicily on Aug. 19. Lynch and his daughter were among seven people who died while 15 others survived, including the captain and most of the crew. In a written judgment, Hildyard expressed his 'sympathy and deepest condolences' to Lynch's wife and family. Hildyard said HPE suffered a loss of 646 million pounds based on the difference between Autonomy's purchase price and what it would have paid had Autonomy's 'true financial position been correctly presented." HPE is also owed 51.7 million pounds for "personal claims related to deceit and/or misrepresentation" against Lynch and Sushovan Hussain, the finance director, and $47.5 million for other losses. Hussain was convicted in a 2018 U.S. trial of wire fraud and other crimes related to Autonomy's sale, and sentenced to five years in prison. 'We are pleased that this decision brings us a step closer to the resolution of this dispute," HPE said in a statement. "We look forward to the further hearing at which the final amount of HPE's damages will be determined.' A hearing to deal with interest, currency conversion and whether Lynch's estate can appeal is set for November. In a statement written before his death and issued posthumously, Lynch said the ruling shows that HP's original claim 'was not just a wild overstatement - misleading shareholders - but it was off the mark by 80%.' 'This result exposes HP's failure and makes clear that the immense damage to Autonomy was down to HP's own errors and actions," he said.
San Francisco Chronicle
22-07-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
UK court says HPE owed more than $940 million in fraud case against late tech tycoon Mike Lynch
LONDON (AP) — Hewlett Packard is owed more than 700 million pounds ($943 million) from British tech tycoon Mike Lynch's estate and his former finance director after they lost a fraud case involving Lynch's software company, a U.K. High Court judge ruled on Tuesday. The court's decision comes nearly a year after Lynch was killed when his superyacht sank off Sicily, where he had gathered with friends and family to celebrate his acquittal months earlier in a separate U.S. criminal trial. The U.S. tech company, now known as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, had accused Lynch of fraud and conspiracy after it bought Lynch's company, Autonomy Corp., for $11 billion. HPE also took Lynch to court in the U.K., seeking up to $4 billion in damages in a civil case. The High Court had ruled mostly in HPE's favor in 2022, but the judge had said that the amount awarded would be 'substantially less' than the company was seeking. Judge Robert Hildyard was originally due to issue a draft ruling in September but delayed it after Lynch's yacht, the Bayesian, sank in the storm off Sicily on Aug. 19. Lynch and his daughter were among seven people who died while 15 others survived, including the captain and most of the crew. In a written judgment, Hildyard expressed his 'sympathy and deepest condolences' to Lynch's wife and family. Hildyard said HPE suffered a loss of 646 million pounds based on the difference between Autonomy's purchase price and what it would have paid had Autonomy's 'true financial position been correctly presented." HPE is also owed 51.7 million pounds for "personal claims related to deceit and/or misrepresentation" against Lynch and Sushovan Hussain, the finance director, and $47.5 million for other losses. Hussain was convicted in a 2018 U.S. trial of wire fraud and other crimes related to Autonomy's sale, and sentenced to five years in prison. 'We are pleased that this decision brings us a step closer to the resolution of this dispute," HPE said in a statement. "We look forward to the further hearing at which the final amount of HPE's damages will be determined.' A hearing to deal with interest, currency conversion and whether Lynch's estate can appeal is set for November. In a statement written before his death and issued posthumously, Lynch said the ruling shows that HP's original claim 'was not just a wild overstatement - misleading shareholders - but it was off the mark by 80%.'
Powys County Times
22-07-2025
- Business
- Powys County Times
Hewlett-Packard lost hundreds of millions in Autonomy acquisition, judge rules
Hewlett-Packard (HP) lost hundreds of millions of pounds through its acquisition of British software company Autonomy, which was founded by Mike Lynch, a High Court judge has ruled. The technology firm, now known as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), sued the British entrepreneur for around five billion US dollars following its purchase of Cambridge-based Autonomy for 11.1 billion dollars (£8.2 billion) in 2011. The company claimed at a nine-month trial in 2019 that Mr Lynch inflated Autonomy's revenues and 'committed a deliberate fraud over a sustained period of time', which it said forced it to announce an 8.8 billion dollar (£6.5 billion) write-down of the firm's worth just over a year after the acquisition. In a ruling in 2022, Mr Justice Hildyard said the American firm had 'substantially succeeded' in their claim, but that it was likely to receive 'substantially less' than the amount it claimed in damages. He said that Autonomy had not accurately portrayed its financial position during the purchase, but even if it had, HPE would still have bought the company, but at a reduced price. A hearing was then held last year to decide the amount that Mr Lynch must pay in damages, before the businessman died aged 59 along with his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, and five others when his yacht, the Bayesian, sank off the coast of Sicily last August. On Tuesday, Mr Justice Hildyard ruled that HPE suffered losses amounting to £697,876,753 through the purchasing of Autonomy, some of which is set to be paid by Mr Lynch's estate. He also ruled that Mr Lynch's estate is liable to pay part of around 47.5 million dollars in damages, which is worth around £35 million. Some of the money is due to be paid by Sushovan Hussain, Autonomy's former chief financial officer, who was also sued by HPE. He was convicted in April 2018 in the US of wire fraud and other crimes related to Autonomy's sale, and was sentenced to five years in prison. While he has since settled HPE's claim, he could still be required to pay damages. A further hearing to deal with matters including interest, currency conversion and whether Mr Lynch's estate can appeal against the decision is set to be held in November. Handing down his ruling, Mr Justice Hildyard expressed his 'great sympathy' for Mr Lynch's family, calling his death a 'tragedy'. He said: 'It is a source of anxiety to me that I have to deliver a judgment that will inevitably cause further stress on those involved.' In the 197-page ruling, he said he considered that HPE's claim 'was always substantially exaggerated' and that the five billion dollars figure claimed 'was not based on detailed analysis'. Following the ruling in 2022, Mr Lynch, who was also the founding investor of cybersecurity giant Darktrace, was extradited to the US in May 2023 to face criminal charges after his removal was approved by the then-Home Secretary Priti Patel. He was cleared of accusations that he orchestrated a fraud and conspiracy over Autonomy's sale in the US in June 2024, and was celebrating the acquittal on his yacht at the time of his death. In a statement written before his death, issued posthumously by his representatives on Tuesday, Mr Lynch said: 'Today's High Court ruling reflects that HP's original five billion dollar damages claim was not just a wild overstatement – misleading shareholders – but it was off the mark by 80%. 'HP acquired Autonomy for 11.6 billion dollars and today's judgment is a view that Autonomy's actual value was not even 10% below the price HP paid. 'This result exposes HP's failure and makes clear that the immense damage to Autonomy was down to HP's own errors and actions. 'An appeal process will be considered later this year. 'The English civil case included hearsay evidence from the US and we were never able to question or cross-examine those witnesses. 'This is in direct contrast to the rights of defendants in the US legal system. 'When in the US criminal trial we were able to cross-examine the relevant witnesses, a very different story emerged. Why is the English legal system so trusting?' A spokesperson for HPE said: 'We are pleased that this decision brings us a step closer to the resolution of this dispute. 'We look forward to the further hearing at which the final amount of HPE's damages will be determined.' Jeremy Sandelson, who was appointed by the court as administrator of Mr Lynch's estate, said he would be 'examining the judgment carefully', including whether to appeal both the 2022 ruling and the judgment on Tuesday.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Circularity problem' over Mike Lynch's $630 million estate finally resolved as HPE moves closer to settling multibillion-dollar claim
A longstanding stalemate over the fate of a $4 billion claim against the late Autonomy founder Mike Lynch has finally been resolved after the civil judge found a solution to Lynch's family refusing to take up their role as the executors of his multimillion-dollar estate. Lynch passed away in August last year alongside his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and five other passengers after his Bayesian yacht sank in a storm off the coast of Italy. Weeks earlier, Lynch had been acquitted of criminal fraud charges in the U.S. related to Hewlett-Packard's (now HPE) $11.7 billion acquisition of Autonomy in 2011. However, Lynch lost a 2022 civil case in the U.K., which could have left him liable for up to $4 billion in damages based on HPE's demands. Mr Justice Hildyard, who oversaw that civil case, postponed a judgment on a damages figure in the wake of Lynch's death in August, according to a legal document circulated last week. At the time of his 2022 judgment, Hildyard said the final settlement would be considerably lower than the $4 billion figure pursued by HPE. He had been awaiting correspondence from Lynch's legal representatives at Clifford Chance, in the wake of his death. 'Not knowing, at that time, of the reluctance of Dr Lynch's executors to take up their roles, I had envisaged that I would hear back from the parties in October,' Hildyard wrote. However, he confirmed he heard nothing until November, after which it became clear the case had reached an impasse relating to Lynch's estate. Hildyard explained that executors of Lynch's Will, which included his widow Angela Bacares, Autonomy co-founder Richard Gaunt, and its former chief operating officer Andrew Kantar, had at varying points renounced their roles, citing the need to await a judgment on damages to assess their solvency. That created what Travers Smith, the law firm representing HPE, described as a 'circularity problem.' No one was willing to represent Lynch's estate until a settlement was agreed to determine its solvency, but no judgment could be granted until an executor was willing to represent the estate. To break that impasse, Hildyard appointed the retired, former Clifford Chance lawyer, Jeremy Sandelson, as an independent third-party legal representative for Lynch's estate. Sandelson was the preferred choice of Bacares, who knew Lynch and his family 'both socially and professionally.' Sandelson will be able to appoint lawyers and subtract legal fees from the estate's funds. Clifford Chance partner Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo, were among those killed in the Bayesian disaster. The 'Magic Circle' law firm, which represented Lynch, is currently owed around $1.1 million in legal fees linked to the lawsuit across its U.S. and U.K. offices. The Sunday Times Rich List reported that Lynch's assets were worth around £473 million (around $630 million), much of it in Bacares's name. These included their Suffolk estate and most of Lynch's 7% share in Darktrace, the cybersecurity company founded by former Autonomy employees and acquired by Thoma Bravo for $5.3 billion. There was brief speculation that HPE would abandon its case against Lynch, owing to the potential for negative PR from pursuing Lynch's grieving widow, Bacares, for damages. An HPE spokesperson confirmed at the time that the group would see the case through to its conclusion of a settlement, adding a reminder of its fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of shareholders, a point reiterated by HPE chief executive, Antonio Neri. This story was originally featured on
