Mike Lynch, the British software mogul, has been extradited to the US weeks after losing a lengthy legal battle over the move.
Sky News learns that Mr. Lynch arrived in San Francisco on a United Airlines flight Thursday at lunchtime, paving the way for the former Autonomy chief’s criminal trial.
A source said a California judge had ordered him to post $100 million bail to secure his release during a hearing after he arrived in the United States.
Mr Lynch’s extradition had been brought forward since he lost a High Court fight last month.
He found himself mired in litigation for years after HP alleged he and a number of colleagues manipulated Autonomy’s accounts to inflate its value.
The company’s former finance chief, Sushovan Hussain, is serving five years in prison after being convicted in the United States in 2018.
Mr Lynch argued that Autonomy’s status as a British company, listed in London, meant any charges against him would have to be brought to the UK.
A civil suit against Mr. Lynch led HP to “substantially succeed” in its claims in January of last year, although Judge Hildyard said the resulting damages were likely to be less than the $5 billion claimed by the giant. american software.
The businessman’s fate sparked a row in which prominent British businessmen and executives protested what they called the “unreasonable” use of the extradition treaty between Britain and the United States.
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In a letter to Rishi Sunak in February, figures including Brent Hoberman, the co-founder of Lastminute.com, and FTSE-100 board veterans such as Lord Stevenson of Coddenham, the former chairman of HBOS and Pearson, said are opposed to the move to have Mr. Lynch faces trial in the United States.
They said they would see a treaty “promulgated quickly after 9/11 to allow for the pursuit of terrorists deployed to settle a business case already before British courts”.
The group of signatories described it as “deeply worrying for anyone running a business in the UK”.
“This sequence of events would clearly intrude on the sovereignty of the British courts and suggest that the United States can ignore our laws.”
A spokesperson for Lynch declined to comment, while the US Department of Justice was approached for comment.
