Mike Lynch to campaign for Britons wrongly convicted in US

Tech entrepreneur considers funding British ‘Innocence Project’ following fraud acquittal

The British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is preparing to set up a campaign to help wrongly accused Britons in the US after he was acquitted of a multi-billion dollar fraud.
Mr Lynch said he was considering funding a British version of America’s Innocence Project, which works to overturn wrongful convictions in a country where just 0.4pc of federal trials lead to a not guilty verdict.
It comes the month after the 59-year-old was cleared of fraud charges in a US court over the £7bn sale of the British software company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard (HP).
Mr Lynch was extradited to the US last year and has been a critic of the UK’s extradition treaty with America, which opponents have said is one sided.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, he said: “It has to be wrong that a US prosecutor has more power over a British citizen living in England than the UK police do.
“The system can sweep individuals away. There needs to be a contrarian possibility that’s saying, ‘Right, well, the whole world thinks you’re guilty but, actually, was that a fair conviction?’”
The US Department of Justice charged Mr Lynch with 17 counts of fraud and conspiracy in 2018 and 2019, claiming he had overseen an illegal effort to inflate Autonomy’s revenues.
HP had taken a $5bn (£3.9bn) writedown on Autonomy in 2012, a year after buying the former FTSE 100 company, and alleged “serious accounting improprieties” by its former management. Mr Lynch countered that the company had been mismanaged under HP’s new chief executive.
The claims were investigated by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office but never led to charges. Mr Lynch had maintained that any alleged wrongdoing would have happened in Britain and so any prosecution belonged in the UK.
He fought extradition to the US but was ultimately transferred to California last May and was largely confined to a property in San Francisco in the run-up to the trial, forced to wear an ankle tag and be monitored by armed guards.
Mr Lynch said that US marshals had put him on chains and bundled him onto the back seat of a plane once he was taken into custody at Heathrow airport, placing a cap on his head to shield his identity. He told the Sunday Times: “It’s ridiculous. You’re in chains, even though, like, what are you going to do?”
He was acquitted in May after an 11-week trial in which he had taken the stand, a shock in a US system in which not guilty verdicts are exceedingly rare.
The Telegraph reported the day after the verdict that Mr Lynch planned to campaign against laws on US extradition, telling the Conservative MP David Davis: “We’ve got work to do to put this extradition treaty right.”
Mr Lynch awaits a damages verdict after being found liable for fraud over Autonomy’s sale in a UK civil case brought by HP. The US company is seeking as much as $4bn after winning the case in 2024, and Mr Lynch has said he plans to appeal.
However, Mr Lynch said the case is “not a perilous situation”, saying his wife had made a series of smart technology investments. Mr Lynch’s own net worth was estimated at $450m, his lawyer said last year.