According to the BBC, Lynch described his experience at the trial as “surreal” and stressed that he had no involvement in the transactions under investigation.
Lynch, who co-founded Autonomy in 1996 and has since built it into one of Britain's leading technology companies and was once compared to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
reference: Co-Founder, Autonomy microphone Lynchingfraud trial begins in San Francisco
Prosecutors in San Francisco have spent weeks arguing with jurors that Mr Lynch orchestrated a scheme to backdate deals and use other tactics to inflate the value of Autonomy, which was sold for more than $11 billion (£8.6 billion), at the time the biggest ever takeover by a British tech company.
HP claimed it was induced to overpay for Autonomy, which specializes in software that extracts useful information from unstructured data sources such as phone calls, emails and videos, just a year after acquiring the company, and wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8 billion.
Lynch's lawyers argued that HP failed to conduct proper due diligence before the acquisition, and also sought to separate Lynch from Autonomy's other executives, including former Chief Financial Officer Stephen Chamberlain, who has already been indicted on fraud charges.
Lynch, testifying under questioning by his lawyers, said he focused on technology and marketing at Autonomy and left the financial side to others, and likened the investigation to finding bacteria in a seemingly clean kitchen.
Lynch, a former British government adviser and former trustee of the BBC and the British Library, resisted extradition to the U.S. But he was ultimately extradited to the U.S. after a British court ruled in HP's favor in 2022 in a similar civil fraud lawsuit in which HP is seeking $4 billion in damages.
Also on trial alongside Lynch is Autonomy's former financial director, Stephen Chamberlain.
