James Titcomb
Mike Lynch’s estate has been ordered to pay the US technology company Hewlett Packard £920 million ($1.8 billion), two years after the British tech tycoon’s death on his superyacht.
A High Court judge said HP was owed the sum as compensation for the fraudulent sale of Lynch’s software company, Autonomy, 15 years ago. The figure would bankrupt Lynch’s estate.
The entrepreneur, who was known as “Britain’s Bill Gates”, died along with his teenage daughter Hannah and five other victims on his Bayesian superyacht off the coast of Sicily in 2024.
He was celebrating his freedom after beating criminal fraud charges in the United States related to the £7 billion sale of Autonomy in 2011.
The deal had been the biggest ever involving a British tech company. But a year later HP wrote down its value by billions and claimed Lynch and other executives had inflated the company’s value by overstating revenues.
HP sued Lynch and his former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain for $US5 billion ($7.2 billion) in the English courts in 2015. The pair were found liable in 2022. US prosecutors charged him with multiple counts of fraud in 2018, threatening decades in prison.
Lynch beat the US charges in 2024, in a shock defeat for American prosecutors, and had been planning to rebuild his life before the Bayesian sank in a freak storm off the Sicilian coast in August 2024.
However, HP won the High Court civil case and continued to pursue it after his death, claiming a reduced sum of £1.5 billion in damages last year.
On Tuesday, Justice Hildyard awarded total damages of $US1.24 billion including $US236 million of interest. The estate will also have to pay HP’s legal costs.
The judge also denied Lynch’s lawyers permission to appeal the case, although they can now seek to overturn it at the Court of Appeal.
Lynch was estimated as being worth $US450 million by his lawyers in US proceedings, meaning the judgment would bankrupt his estate.
Angela Bacares-Lynch, Lynch’s widow, who escaped the Bayesian as the superyacht capsized, has substantial assets in her own name. It is unclear whether HP will pursue her for the shortfall.
A spokesman for the Lynch family said: “We are disappointed by the court’s refusal and believe an application to the Court of Appeal should follow in the interests of justice.
“HP’s $US5 billion damages claim has already been shown to be vastly exaggerated. Today’s judgment describes the exaggeration as ‘without foundation’ and the purposes for which it was ‘calibrated, publicised and pursued’ as objectionable, misleading shareholders and extending the litigation unnecessarily.
“Dr Lynch’s acquittal in the US, where witnesses were properly cross-examined, exposed the truth. The damage to Autonomy was the result of HP’s own actions and failures, not wrongdoing at Autonomy.”
A spokesman for HP said: “HP is pleased with the court’s ruling and its rejection of the estate’s request for permission to appeal, which brings us another step closer to resolution of the dispute.” HP has since split into two companies – Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP – with the damages to be divided between them.
Justice Hildyard estimated the loss to HP at around £740 million last year, although the final amount was increased because of interest, legal costs and foreign exchange conversions.
Hussain settled separately with the company last year, paying £77 million.
Bacares-Lynch is separately being sued by the Italian yacht builder that constructed the Bayesian. The Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini Navi, has issued a £400 million claim against her holding company Revtom.
Telegraph, London
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