Nandini Roy Choudhury, writer
Brief news
- British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch was acquitted of fraud charges in June in a trial over allegations made by Hewlett Packard that he had artificially inflated the value of his company when he sold it to them in 2011.
- Lynch was reported missing after a superyacht he was on sank off the coast of Sicily. His wife and several others were rescued, but Lynch’s daughter and others remain unaccounted for.
- Lynch, once dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates,” founded enterprise software firm Autonomy and runs venture capital firm Invoke Capital. He has been involved in various legal battles and has a net worth that previously landed him on Forbes’ billionaires list.
Detailed news
LONDON — In June, British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch was acquitted of fraud charges in a groundbreaking trial. Hewlett Packard had accused Lynch of artificially inflating the value of his company when he sold it to the U.S. enterprise tech behemoth for $11.7 billion in 2011.
Lynch, who was once hailed as “Britain’s Bill Gates” by the U.K. national press, was reported missing on Monday following the shipwreck of a superyacht off the coast of Sicily, just two months after his acquittal.
The Bayesian, a yacht, capsized at approximately 4 a.m. local time while anchored off the coast of Porticello, a small fishing village in the province of Palermo, Italy. Local media reports indicate that it was attacked by an unexpectedly violent tempest.
One of the 15 individuals who were rescued following the yacht’s collapse is Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares. Officials have reported that at least one individual has passed away, and six individuals, including Lynch’s daughter Hannah, are still unaccounted for.
Late Monday, the civil protection agency of Sicily informed reporters that Jonathan Bloomer, the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, his wife Judy, and Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance, are also missing.
Stephen Chamberlain, the former vice president of finance at Autonomy and a co-defendant in Lynch’s trial, passed away on Saturday after being “fatally struck” by a vehicle while out running in Cambridgeshire, according to Chamberlain’s counsel, as reported by Reuters news agency.
Regarding Mike Lynch, who is he ?
Lynch, who is 59 years old, is the founder of Autonomy, an enterprise software company. Additionally, he is the founder of Invoke Capital, a venture capital firm that specializes in providing support to European technology businesses. He established the firm in 2012.
Lynch was the subject of a protracted legal dispute with Hewlett Packard after the technology company accused him of inflating the value of Autonomy in a $11.7 billion sale. Autonomy’s value was written down by $8.8 billion by HP within one year of its acquisition.
Last year, Lynch was extradited from Britain to the United States to face trial for the HP allegations. He faced criminal charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy for allegedly scheming to inflate Autonomy’s revenue starting in 2009 in a bid to entice a buyer.
But two months ago, Lynch, who has long denied the accusations, was acquitted of fraud charges in a surprise victory following the trial, which lasted for three months.
Lynch took the stand in his own defense during the trial, denying any misconduct and informing the jury that HP failed to integrate Autonomy.
Lynch and Autonomy’s finance executive, Chamberlain, were accused by prosecutors of manipulating the company’s finances in various ways.
These agreements included “round-tripping” deals and back-dated agreements, which aimed to fraudulently inflate Autonomy’s sales by providing customers with funds through fictitious contracts.
Lynch informed jurors that he was preoccupied with technology-related matters at Autonomy and delegated the responsibility of accounting and financial decisions to the company’s then-chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain.
In 2018, Hussain was convicted of conspiracy, wire fraud, and securities fraud in the United States in connection with the HP deal. In January, he was released from prison after serving a five-year sentence.
“Britain’s Bill Gates”
Lynch was born in Ilford, a major community in East London, in 1965. He grew up in the vicinity of Chelmsford, which is located in the English county of Essex.
He attended the University of Cambridge, where he studied natural sciences, focusing on areas including electronics, mathematics and biology. After completing his undergraduate studies, Lynch completed a Ph.D. in signals processing and communications.
Toward the end of the 1980s, Lynch founded Lynett Systems Ltd., a firm which produced designs and audio products for the music industry.
He established Cambridge Neurodynamics, a fingerprint recognition business, in the early 1990s, a few years later. Notably, the South Yorkshire Police was among its clients.
But his breakthrough occurred in 1996 when he co-founded Autonomy as a subsidiary from Cambridge Neurodynamics with David Tabizel and Richard Gaunt. The organization expanded into one of the largest technology companies in the United Kingdom.
At the height of his success, Lynch wielded significant influence in the U.K. technology sector, earning the nickname “Britain’s Bill Gates” from the media.
He was previously a member of the BBC’s board of directors. Additionally, he was appointed as an advisor to the British government on the Council for Science and Technology.
Lynch was instrumental in the establishment of British cybersecurity firm Darktrace and legal software startup Luminance as the head of venture firm Invoke. He provided substantial financial support to both companies.
Publicly-listed Darktrace, which had fended off similar allegations of inflating its revenues by U.S. short seller Quintessential Capital Management (QCM), earlier this year agreed a deal to bought out and taken private by U.S. private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $5.32 billion in cash.
Lynch was previously included in Forbes’ billionaires list in 2014 and 2015, with an estimated net worth of $1 billion, according to the business news outlet. However, while confronting legal costs in the dispute with HP, he disappeared off the list in 2016.
Apart from his legal challenges, Lynch maintains and oversees cattle and piglets at his Suffolk residence.
During an interview with LeadersIn, Lynch disclosed, “I maintain rare breeds.” “I possess cows that were rendered obsolete in the 1940s and pigs that have been unowned since the Middle Ages, and none of them are equipped with any Apple products.”
The local East Anglian Times newspaper reported that Lynch purportedly returned to his farm in Suffolk, a county in the East of England, to recuperate from his legal dispute with the United States.
Lynch disclosed to The Times newspaper that he was concerned about the possibility of dying in prison if he were found guilty of the HP allegations, weeks prior to his disappearance.
Lynch stated in an interview with The Times, “If this had gone the wrong way, it would have been the end of my life as I have known it in any sense.”
“It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life – the question is, what do you want to do with it?” he added.
Source : CNBC News, The Times
