Tech tycoon Mike Lynch, accused of ‘massive’ fraud, set to testify at US trial | Technology

[Pelican Press 0]

Tech tycoon Mike ******, accused of ‘massive’ ******, set to testify at US trial | Technology

The British entrepreneur Mike ****** is expected to take the stand in a San Francisco federal courthouse on Thursday as a key witness in his own ********* ****** trial, which began in March.

US authorities have charged the former software tycoon with 16 counts of wire ******, securities ****** and *********** relating to his company’s acquisition deal with Hewlett-Packard in 2011. If convicted, ****** faces up to 25 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

At the end of court proceedings on Wednesday, however, ******’s legal team suggested it may move for a mistrial over an alleged improper line of questioning during cross-examination by the prosecution. The team said it will decide whether to make a motion by Thursday morning when the court reconvenes. If granted, a mistrial could mean ****** has to be retried at a later date.

Once hailed as “Britain’s Bill Gates”, ****** sold his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in a deal prosecutors say was built on “a series of *****”. The executive is accused of artificially inflating the software firm’s sales; misleading auditors, analysts and regulators; and intimidating people who raised concerns.

Just a year after the $11.1bn (£8.72bn) deal, from which ****** received £500m, Hewlett-Packard reported “serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations” and wrote down the value of the acquisition by $8.8bn.

In his testimony on Thursday, ****** is anticipated to continue the line of defense put forward thus far by his legal team, which attributes some financial discrepancies at the heart of the alleged ****** to differences between US and *** accounting standards and suggest he was not the driving force behind the decisions in question.

Reid Weingarten, ******’s attorney, has argued that the case amounts to a “routine business dispute” which spiraled into an “overblown ****** case”. While the prosecutors’ argument is “****** and white”, Weingarten told the court, the reality is more nuanced.

“You’re going to see in this trial [that] that ain’t the way the world works,” he said. “The world works in grey. The world is complicated.”

Prosecutors, meanwhile, have painted ****** as a domineering boss, and a driving force behind a “massive” years-long ******.

“Autonomy’s financial statements were materially false and misleading,” assistant US attorney Adam Reeves said, claiming the company lied to auditors and investors “again and again” over 10 quarters, and fraudulently inflated its revenue between 2009 and 2011 to suggest growth.

****** was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2019 and extradited from the *** to the ******* States last May. After posting a $100m bond, he was released to house arrest at a property in San Francisco where he has spent the last year preparing for the trial.

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