Silicon Valley technology giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has vowed to file a £3 billion claim against the family of Mike Lynch following the tech magnate’s death aboard the superyacht Bayesian.
HPE confirmed it would continue a long-running fraud case against Mr Lynch, the founder of British software company Autonomy, and his former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain.
An HPE spokesperson said: “It is HPE’s intention to see the process through to the end.”
The Telegraph previously reported that Lynch’s family was at risk of being sued by HPE, although the company previously declined to comment on whether it planned to pursue the proceedings.
Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among seven people killed when the Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily two weeks ago.
HPE could continue a long-running lawsuit against Mr Lynch by collecting from his estate. The US company is seeking as much as $4bn (£3bn) in the UK lawsuit.
In 2011, Lynch sold Autonomy to Hewlett Packard for £7 billion, a deal that earned him the nickname “Britain’s Bill Gates”.
However, the deal fell apart after less than a year and in 2015 HPE took Lynch and Hussain to the High Court.
The pair were found guilty of fraud in a 2022 civil lawsuit, after a judge alleged they had made “contrived” deals with “no commercial substance” that inflated Autonomy’s value before the sale.
Mr Hussain was found guilty of US criminal charges over the deal in 2018 and subsequently sentenced to five years in prison. However, Mr Lynch was acquitted in a trial in June this year, an outcome seen as a stunning exoneration for the entrepreneur.
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Judge Hildyard had not yet ruled on how much HPE owed in the civil case, but was expected to make a decision by the end of the year.
An HPE spokesperson said: “In 2022, an English High Court judge ruled that HPE was largely successful in its civil fraud claims against Dr Lynch and Mr Hussain.
“A hearing on the damages award was held in February 2024 and the judge’s decision on the damages owed by HPE will be announced in due course.”
Mr Lynch had already criticised the ruling in 2022 and promised to appeal. His estate can do so after a ruling on damages.
A spokesman for his family declined to comment.
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