London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, May 31, 2025

UK politicians and business people will be closely watching the extradition of Mike Lynch

UK politicians and business people will be closely watching the extradition of Mike Lynch

The founder of Autonomy, which was bought by HP, Dr Mike Lynch has fought extradition tooth and nail.
The extradition of Mike Lynch to the United States will undoubtedly alarm a number of British business people.

Dr Lynch faces charges over Autonomy, the software company he founded and which was bought by Hewlett Packard in 2011 for $11bn.

The US hardware maker subsequently wrote off $8bn of the purchase price and has accused Dr Lynch of manipulating Autonomy's accounts.

Central to Dr Lynch's attempt to avoid extradition was that Autonomy was a British company, listed on the London Stock Exchange, subject to British accounting rules and whose takeover was carried out under British takeover rules.

Therefore, they argued, the British courts were the place to hear such a case.

The UK courts found against him on the grounds that Autonomy had derived the majority of its sales in the US and that the losses incurred by HP had been suffered in the US and by American investors.

Unhelpfully for Dr Lynch, the UK's Serious Fraud Office had dropped its own investigation into the takeover in 2015, indicating the US was the most appropriate jurisdiction in which any such proceedings should take place.

The US authorities also argued that claims made by Dr Lynch about Autonomy's financial performance in phone calls and emails to HP's advisers and executives had broken US wire fraud law.

The implications for British business people, then, are that anyone who sells their business to a US buyer, who derives a proportion (however small) of their sales in the US, or whose shares are bought by a US investor, may be open to similar treatment if perceived of wrongdoing.

It is why Dr Lynch's MP, the Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands, has previously argued the existence of the treaty will deter entrepreneurship and deter some British businesses from selling interests to US investors.

Aggressively going after British business people

The US certainly has form in going after British business people aggressively.

Among the more notorious cases was that of Nigel Potter, the former chief executive of the gambling and dog track operator Wembley Group, who was jailed in 2005 for three years after being convicted on three counts of conspiring to commit wire fraud.

He was forced to serve his sentence in a high security prison because, as an "alien", he was deemed a flight risk.

Unlike Dr Lynch, who fought extradition tooth and nail, Mr Potter had travelled to the US voluntarily in an attempt to clear his name. The mild-mannered accountant even found himself being clapped in leg irons when undergoing cancer treatment.

Then there was Ian Norris, the former chief executive of Morgan Crucible, the industrial materials company.

He was accused by the US of conspiring to fix the price of car parts and avoided extradition when the House of Lords ruled he could not be convicted of the offences and, accordingly, not extradited.

The US then went after Mr Norris on a lesser charge of conspiring to obstruct a criminal antitrust inquiry - and ended up being jailed for 18 months.

Most famous were the so-called "NatWest Three" - Giles Darby, David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew - who were convicted for wire fraud while working for NatWest and doing business for the crashed US energy trading group Enron.

Like Dr Lynch, they argued that, as British nationals working for a British bank and whose alleged offences took place in Britain, they should be tried in Britain.

The courts, again, disagreed.

Prior to their extradition, the three argued they would not receive a fair trial in the US, a concern also flagged by Dr Lynch and his supporters.

Mr Bermingham later wrote in The Times: "It is a near statistical certainty that someone extradited to the US will end up guilty, most probably through a plea bargain rather than going to trial, because the criminal justice system in the US is so heavily geared towards this outcome… a toxic combination of political machismo and judges who are political appointees produces a system where few sane people will run the risk of going to trial.

"Nearly 98% of people indicted in the federal system will plea bargain, because the penalties for losing at trial are so disproportionate."

There is also a suspicion that the case against Dr Lynch has been motivated by spite on the part of HP for the way it ended up overpaying for Autonomy.

Meg Whitman, the former chief executive under whom HP pursued civil charges against Mr Lynch, has gone on to pursue a career in politics and is currently the US ambassador to Kenya. It is easy to see how the US Department for Justice might be tempted to take up the cudgels on behalf of such a big, established US company.

The embarrassment for HP from the Autonomy deal is lasting - not least because, in the City, Dr Lynch was always quite a divisive figure.

Had HP done better due diligence when it acquired Autonomy, it would not have had to look very far to find analysts who had accused the company of fiddling its figures.

The political dimension

There is a broader dimension to the case, too.

Many MPs, among them the former Brexit secretary David Davis, the security minister Tom Tugendhat and the former Liberal Democrat leaders Sir Vince Cable and Sir Menzies Campbell, say Dr Lynch's case raises broader issues of UK sovereignty.

They argue that the extradition treaty between the UK and the US signed by the Blair government in 2003 is one-sided and that more Britons seem to be extradited to the US than the other way round.

That criticism has intensified in the wake of America's refusal to extradite the diplomat's wife Anne Sacoolas for causing the death of the British teenager Harry Dunn.

Politicians, then, will be watching closely to see what happens to Dr Lynch.

So, too, will many British business people.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Satirical Sketch Sparks Political Spouse Feud in South Korea
Indonesia Quarry Collapse Leaves Multiple Dead and Missing
South Korean Election Video Pulled Amid Misogyny Outcry
Asian Economies Shift Away from US Dollar Amid Trade Tensions
Netflix Investigates Allegations of On-Set Mistreatment in K-Drama Production
US Defence Chief Reaffirms Strong Ties with Singapore Amid Regional Tensions
Vietnam Faces Strategic Dilemma Over China's Mekong River Projects
Malaysia's First AI Preacher Sparks Debate on Islamic Principles
White House Press Secretary Criticizes Harvard Funding, Advocates for Vocational Training
France to Implement Nationwide Smoking Ban in Outdoor Spaces Frequented by Children
Meta and Anduril Collaborate on AI-Driven Military Augmented Reality Systems
Russia's Fossil Fuel Revenues Approach €900 Billion Since Ukraine Invasion
U.S. Justice Department Reduces American Bar Association's Role in Judicial Nominations
U.S. Department of Energy Unveils 'Doudna' Supercomputer to Advance AI Research
U.S. SEC Dismisses Lawsuit Against Binance Amid Regulatory Shift
Alcohol Industry Faces Increased Scrutiny Amid Health Concerns
Italy Faces Population Decline Amid Youth Emigration
U.S. Goods Imports Plunge Nearly 20% Amid Tariff Disruptions
OpenAI Faces Competition from Cheaper AI Rivals
Foreign Tax Provision in U.S. Budget Bill Alarms Investors
Trump Accuses China of Violating Trade Agreement
Gerry Adams Wins Libel Case Against BBC
Russia Accuses Serbia of Supplying Arms to Ukraine
EU Central Bank Pushes to Replace US Dollar with Euro as World’s Main Currency
Chinese Woman Dies After Being Forced to Visit Bank Despite Critical Illness
President Trump Grants Full Pardons to Reality TV Stars Todd and Julie Chrisley
Texas Enacts App Store Accountability Act Mandating Age Verification
U.S. Health Secretary Ends Select COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations
Vatican Calls for Sustainable Tourism in 2025 Message
Trump Warns Putin Is 'Playing with Fire' Amid Escalating Ukraine Conflict
India and Pakistan Engage Trump-Linked Lobbyists to Influence U.S. Policy
U.S. Halts New Student Visa Interviews Amid Enhanced Security Measures
Trump Administration Cancels $100 Million in Federal Contracts with Harvard
SpaceX Starship Test Flight Ends in Failure, Mars Mission Timeline Uncertain
King Charles Affirms Canadian Sovereignty Amid U.S. Statehood Pressure
Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on iPhones Amid Dispute with Apple CEO
Putin's Helicopter Reportedly Targeted by Ukrainian Drones
Liverpool Car Ramming Incident Leaves Multiple Injured
Australia Faces Immigration Debate Following Labor Party Victory
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Founder Warns Against Trusting Regime in Nuclear Talks
Macron Dismisses Viral Video of Wife's Gesture as Playful Banter
Cleveland Clinic Study Questions Effectiveness of Recent Flu Vaccine
Netanyahu Accuses Starmer of Siding with Hamas
Junior Doctors Threaten Strike Over 4% Pay Offer
Labour MPs Urge Chancellor to Tax Wealthy Over Cutting Welfare
Publication of UK Child Poverty Strategy Delayed Until Autumn
France Detains UK Fishing Vessel Amid Post-Brexit Tensions
Calls Grow to Resume Syrian Asylum Claims in UK
Nigel Farage Pledges to Reinstate Winter Fuel Payments
Boris and Carrie Johnson Welcome Daughter Poppy
×