British tycoon is arrested in US extradition fight: Mike Lynch walks into London police station to face fraud charges
The tycoon once dubbed ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’ walked into a police station and submitted to arrest yesterday as he began an extradition battle with American authorities.
Mike Lynch, 54, has been charged with fraud by the US Department of Justice over the £7billion sale of his former company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard (HP).
The father of two made hundreds of millions of pounds from the 2011 deal but was later accused of having cooked the company’s books.
UK software tycoon Mike Lynch has been charged with fraud by the US Department for Justice over the £7bn sale of his former company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard
He denies the allegations and his lawyers said his arrest in central London was a ‘formality’.
It was followed by a brief appearance in Westminster Magistrates’ Court and he has vowed to ‘vigorously’ resist extradition.
His lawyers said: ‘Dr Lynch is a British citizen who ran a British company listed on the London Stock Exchange, governed by English law and UK accounting standards.
This request reflects yet another example of the Department of Justice’s attempts to exert extra-territorial jurisdiction over non-US conduct.
‘Dr Lynch vigorously rejects all the allegations against him and is determined to continue to fight these charges.’
Lynch has been described as the king of Cambridge’s ‘Silicon Fen’ area of high-tech companies, and runs investment fund Invoke Capital.
He was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to enterprise and served on former prime minister Theresa May’s council of scientific advisers until he was charged in 2018.
He lives in a £6million Georgian manor house set in 70 acres of Suffolk, where he keeps cows and pigs, and has a home in London.
For ten months, he has been battling a separate £4billion damages claim over the sale of Autonomy in the High Court.
It is thought to be the biggest fraud trial in English legal history His lawyers insist the claims only relate to events that took place in Britain and that US has no jurisdiction over the matter.
His case is almost certain to reignite tensions over the 2003 Anglo-American extradition treaty, which critics say is stacked in the US’s favour.
US officials rejected a request to extradite an intelligence official’s wife charged with the road death of motorcyclist Harry Dunn this month.
But British businessmen extradited to face American charges include former Morgan Crucible boss Ian Norris, who was charged with obstructing justice, and the ‘Natwest Three’ – Giles Darby, David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew, accused of fraud.
Lynch’s lead lawyers, Chris Morvillo and Reid Weingarten, said: ‘The UK Serious Fraud Office previously investigated and did not pursue the allegations.
‘Dr Lynch has now answered HP’s claims in the appropriate forum, the High Court in London, where he attended court every day.
‘He has not hidden, nor has he shied away from defending his conduct. The Department of Justice should not have commenced extradition proceedings prior to the judgment of the High Court.’