LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Autonomy's co-founder Mike Lynch faces US criminal charges that include fraud and conspiracy regarding the company's takeover by Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
On Thursday, the US filed charges against Lynch on 14 counts of conspiracy and fraud with a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison over the $11bn sale of UK software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard, the Financial Times reported.

According to the charges, between 2009 and 2011, Lynch and Stephen Chamberlain, vice president of finance, along with other co-conspirators, overstated Autonomy's revenues and made misleading statements to regulators and market analysts covering the company.

According to the BBC, the charge sheet also says they "intimidated, pressured and paid off persons who raised complaints about or openly criticized Autonomy's financial practices and performance".

The court documents say Lynch made $815m from the 14 charges he is accused of.

The 2011 deal took a wrong turn when HP wrote off three-quarters of the British company's value, accusing Lynch and his partners of financial mismanagement.

Lynch countersued HP in 2015, saying that "HP was simply incompetent in its operation of Autonomy, and the acquisition was doomed from the very beginning."

He is not the first Autonomy top executive to be charged with fraud. In April 2018, Autonomy's former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain was found guilty of fraud.

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