London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Feb 05, 2026

British businessman Mike Lynch faces extradition to US

British businessman Mike Lynch faces extradition to US

Priti Patel will have final say on whether Autonomy founder will stand trial for fraud in America
The British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch should be extradited to the US to face criminal fraud charges, a London judge has ruled.

Michael Snow, district judge at Westminster magistrates court, on Thursday refused Lynch’s attempt to block his extradition to the US to face 17 counts including wire fraud and securities fraud related to the 2011 sale of his technology firm, Autonomy.

The judgment will go to the home secretary, Priti Patel, who will have the final say on whether Lynch will be extradited.

The judge asked Lynch, 56, to stand before delivering his verdict. Lynch said, “Yes, I do”, when asked if he understood his bail conditions. The judge said he will be readmitted to bail, and he will have 14 days to appeal against the home secretary’s final decision.

The decision is likely to revive concerns over the power of US authorities to demand the extradition of British citizens. David Davis, a former Conservative minister and shadow home secretary, on Thursday described it as an “outrage” on social media.

Davis wrote: “A judge sitting in a British court has decided to send a British businessman into the hands of the US courts at the say so of American prosecutors.”

The judgment is the latest twist in Lynch’s long-running legal battles over the disastrous takeover of Autonomy by America’s Hewlett-Packard.

Autonomy was hailed as a UK success story as it built a business using complicated pattern recognition technology to sift through unstructured but potentially valuable data. Lynch was made an adviser to 10 Downing Street, and seen by some as a British version of Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

Hewlett-Packard paid $11bn (£8bn) for Autonomy as part of the US company’s effort to pivot away from hardware such as office printers towards software. However, the deal quickly turned into a disaster, and the company wrote off $8.8bn in late 2012.

Hewlett-Packard’s successor companies have since sued Lynch in a £3.8bn civil fraud trial, saying he inflated the value of Autonomy before the sale. The trial ended in January 2020, after months of testimony ranging from dry accounting details to at times lurid evidence on the deal from Lynch and former HP executives including Meg Whitman.

The civil judgment was initially expected as early as the past spring, but the judge, Mr Justice Hildyard, has indicated that he does not expect to circulate a draft until 24 September at the earliest.

Lynch was first charged by the US Department of Justice in November 2018. In an indictment, the US said Lynch and other former Autonomy executives “engaged in a fraudulent scheme to deceive purchasers and sellers of Autonomy securities”. The executives did this to “enrich themselves and others through bonuses, salaries, and options”, the indictment alleged. Lynch submitted himself for arrest in February 2020.

Autonomy’s former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was in 2019 jailed for five years, after a US jury found him guilty of fraud related to the sale.

Lynch denies any wrongdoing in both the civil and criminal cases.

The first extradition hearing was held in February 2021, but his lawyers successfully persuaded the judge to delay for what was expected to be a few weeks for the civil judgment.

Lynch’s counsel, Alex Bailin QC, on Thursday tried to argue for a further delay to the extradition hearing in order to await the judgment in the civil case. Bailin said the judgment in the civil case was relevant to the criminal case.

However, the judge agreed with the counsel for the US government, Mark Summers QC, that further delay was not in “the interests of justice”. He said the judge in the civil case faced an “unenviable and formidable task” in sifting through the evidence, but said the judgment in the British civil case would be “of very limited relevance” to a decision on criminal charges in the US.

Lynch’s lawyer, Christopher Morvillo of Clifford Chance, said: “Dr Lynch is disappointed that the court has ruled against him without waiting for the high court’s judgment in the civil case that examined all these issues. Dr Lynch denies the charges against him.

“At the request of the US Department of Justice, the court has ruled that a British citizen who ran a British company listed on the London Stock Exchange should be extradited to the US over allegations about his conduct in the UK. We say this case belongs in the UK. If the home secretary nonetheless decides to order extradition, Dr Lynch intends to appeal.”

The extradition judgment is also likely to worry shareholders in Darktrace, the recently listed cybersecurity company. Darktrace, which was worth £5bn on Thursday, received seed investment from Lynch’s investment vehicle, and it listed its formerly close relationship with Lynch as a key risk during its April listing. Its chief executive, Poppy Gustafsson, is a former Autonomy employee.

Darktrace declined to comment.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Epstein Case Documents Reignite Global Scrutiny of Political and Business Elites
Eighty-one-year-old man in the United States fatally shoots Uber driver after scam threat
UK Royal Family Faces Intensifying Strain as Epstein-Linked Revelations Rock the Institution
Political Censorship: French Prosecutors Raid Musk’s X Offices in Paris
AI Invented “Hot Springs” — Tourists Arrived and Were Shocked
Tech Mega-Donors Power Trump-Aligned Fundraising Surge to $429 Million Ahead of 2026 Midterms
UK Pharma Watchdog Rules Sanofi Breached Industry Code With RSV Vaccine Claims Against Pfizer
Melania Documentary Opens Modestly in UK with Mixed Global Box Office Performance
Starmer Arrives in Shanghai to Promote British Trade and Investment
Harry Styles, Anthony Joshua and Premier League Stars Among UK’s Top Taxpayers
New Epstein Files Include Images of Former Prince Andrew Kneeling Over Unidentified Woman
Starmer Urges Former Prince Andrew to Testify Before US Congress About Epstein Ties
Starmer Extends Invitation to Japan’s Prime Minister After Strategic Tokyo Talks
Skupski and Harrison Clinch Australian Open Men’s Doubles Title in Melbourne
DOJ Unveils Millions of Epstein Files, Fueling Global Scrutiny of Elite Networks
France Begins Phasing Out Zoom and Microsoft Teams to Advance Digital Sovereignty
China Lifts Sanctions on British MPs and Peers After Starmer Xi Talks in Beijing
Trump Nominates Kevin Warsh as Fed Chair to Reorient U.S. Monetary Policy Toward Pro-Growth Interest Rates
AstraZeneca Announces £11bn China Investment After Scaling Back UK Expansion Plans
Starmer and Xi Forge Warming UK-China Ties in Beijing Amid Strategic Reset
Tech Market Shifts and AI Investment Surge Drive Global Innovation and Layoffs
Markets Jolt as AI Spending, US Policy Shifts, and Global Security Moves Drive New Volatility
U.S. Signals Potential Decertification of Canadian Aircraft as Bilateral Tensions Escalate
Former South Korean First Lady Kim Keon Hee Sentenced to 20 Months for Bribery
Tesla Ends Model S and X Production and Sends $2 Billion to xAI as 2025 Revenue Declines
China Executes 11 Members of the Ming Clan in Cross-Border Scam Case Linked to Myanmar’s Lawkai
Trump Administration Officials Held Talks With Group Advocating Alberta’s Independence
Starmer Signals UK Push for a More ‘Sophisticated’ Relationship With China in Talks With Xi
Shopping Chatbots Move From Advice to Checkout as Walmart Pushes Faster Than Amazon
Starmer Seeks Economic Gains From China Visit While Navigating US Diplomatic Sensitivities
Starmer Says China Visit Will Deliver Economic Benefits as He Prepares to Meet Xi Jinping
UK Prime Minister Starmer Arrives in China to Bolster Trade and Warn Firms of Strategic Opportunities
The AI Hiring Doom Loop — Algorithmic Recruiting Filters Out Top Talent and Rewards Average or Fake Candidates
Amazon to Cut 16,000 Corporate Jobs After Earlier 14,000 Reduction, Citing Streamlining and AI Investment
Federal Reserve Holds Interest Rate at 3.75% as Powell Faces DOJ Criminal Investigation During 2026 Decision
Putin’s Four-Year Ukraine Invasion Cost: Russia’s Mass Casualty Attrition and the Donbas Security-Guarantee Tradeoff
Wall Street Bets on Strong US Growth and Currency Moves as Dollar Slips After Trump Comments
UK Prime Minister Traveled to China Using Temporary Phones and Laptops to Limit Espionage Risks
Google’s $68 Million Voice Assistant Settlement Exposes Incentives That Reward Over-Collection
Kim Kardashian Admits Faking Paparazzi Visit to Britney Spears for Fame in Early 2000s
UPS to Cut 30,000 More Jobs by 2026 Amid Shift to High-Margin Deliveries
France Plans to Replace Teams and Zoom Across Government With Homegrown Visio by 2027
Trump Removes Minneapolis Deportation Operation Commander After Fatal Shooting of Protester
Iran’s Elite Wealth Abroad and Sanctions Leakage: How Offshore Luxury Sustains Regime Resilience
U.S. Central Command Announces Regional Air Exercise as Iran Unveils Drone Carrier Footage
Four Arrested in Andhra Pradesh Over Alleged HIV-Contaminated Injection Attack on Doctor
Hot Drinks, Hidden Particles: How Disposable Cups Quietly Increase Microplastic Exposure
UK Banks Pledge £11 Billion Lending Package to Help Firms Expand Overseas
Suella Braverman Defects to Reform UK, Accusing Conservatives of Betrayal on Core Policies
Melania Trump Documentary Sees Limited Box Office Traction in UK Cinemas
×