Mike Lynch to learn verdict of $5bn fraud suit

Irish-born entrepreneur Mike Lynch will finally learn the verdict of a $5 billion (€4.4 billion) fraud suit some two years after the trial ended, in a decision that could have an impact on whether he’s sent to the US to face criminal charges.

A London judge said he would circulate a draft of his long-awaited civil ruling in the case brought by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise as soon as this week, a lawyer for Lynch said in court Tuesday. It would then be made public two to three weeks after that, he said.

Lynch has been awaiting the ruling for more than two years following one of the longest and most expensive civil trials that the UK courts have ever seen.

He argues that the ruling would be crucial to his separate fight with the US over extradition to face fraud charges stemming from the $11 billion sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.

Lynch, who personally made more than $800 million from the HP deal, was “the leader of a corporate conspiracy,” the US alleged. He was arrested in February 2020 and has been on bail ever since. Lynch denies the charges.