Mike Lynch, the disgraced British technology tycoon who is facing extradition to the US after being accused of fraud, is waiting for a ruling on the latest stage of a legal battle.
A High Court judge considering a legal challenge by Lynch and his team is due to deliver a ruling later this morning.
Lynch mounted a High Court challenge to a decision made by a judge during extradition proceedings.
Justice Swift heard how a judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court had rejected “various challenges” Lynch had made to extradition and ruled that Home Secretary Priti Patel could decide whether to extradite.
Patel subsequently asked District Judge Michael Snow if she could have until March 2022 to make the decision.
Judge Snow refused her application and said she should make a decision before Christmas. Lynch challenged that ruling by Judge Snow and wants Justice Swift to overturn it.
Accusations of fraud
US authorities have accused Lynch of being involved in a multibillion-dollar fraud in America over the sale of his software company, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011 for £8.5bn, which resulted in “colossal financial losses” for the US firm.
They claim that he deliberately overstated the value of his business, which specialised in software to sort through large data sets. Lynch denies all charges against him.
Lawyers representing the US government argued that Lynch’s challenge to Judge Snow’s ruling should be dismissed.
Patel wants to consider another judge’s ruling, in a separate High Court case involving Lynch, before making an extradition decision. Lawyers told Justice Swift how that ruling – by Justice Hildyard – was imminent.
Justice Hildyard began overseeing a High Court trial in London more than two years ago.
Hewlett-Packard sued Lynch, and Autonomy’s former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain, for around £3.8bn over its purchase of Autonomy in 2011.
The technology giant claimed Lynch “committed a deliberate fraud over a sustained period of time” to artificially inflate Autonomy’s value, which it says forced it to announce a £6.7bn write-down of the firm’s worth just over a year after its acquisition.
Lynch argued that Hewlett-Packard was trying to make him “a scapegoat for their failures”.
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