The company’s founder has spent the last decade denying wrongdoing. Both he and Chamberlain have pleaded not guilty. Lynch argues that HP’s dysfunctional management and changes in strategy destroyed Autonomy’s value, and that the company’s former bosses have put the blame on him.
The trial has been a long time coming. Lynch hired Weingarten in 2013, a few months after HP wrote down almost all of Autonomy’s value. Both the US Justice Department and the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) started investigating the claims, but the SFO never prosecuted. It was not until late 2018 that federal prosecutors charged Lynch.
In the years since then, his lawyer has diligently flown to California to represent him, mostly without Lynch present. Lynch initially held off from travelling to the US, and spent years resisting the Justice Department after it requested his extradition in 2019.
It was not until last May that he finally boarded a plane to California and was detained before posting a $50m bail, made up of shares in the British cybersecurity company Darktrace.
Since then, Lynch has been largely confined to a $35,000-a-month house in San Francisco’s upmarket Pacific Heights neighbourhood, featuring panoramic views of the bay and Golden Gate Bridge. For months, he was only allowed out for court dates, medical appointments and family visits (his bail terms have since been relaxed).
He wears an ankle tag and is monitored at all times by armed guards from corporate security company Keelson Strategic, whom Lynch pays for.
Weingarten has represented Lynch at regular hearings, enjoying a good-natured if usually fruitless dialogue with Charles Breyer, the federal judge who will oversee the trial. Weingarten has sought to chip away at the US case, challenging what evidence will be allowed at trial and seeking to throw the case out on the grounds that the US does not have jurisdiction over allegations regarding a UK company.
Breyer, a former Watergate prosecutor and the brother of former Supreme Court judge Stephen Breyer, has largely rejected these requests.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
