Facing 20 years, the British boss extradited to US under controversial treaty deal
‘Serious risk of flight’ ‘It’s almost Orwellian’
A BRITISH tech tycoon was yesterday behind bars in the United States awaiting criminal trial over a UK business deal – sparking fury over the ‘terrible’ extradition treaty between the two countries.
Mike Lynch, founder of software firm Autonomy, could face 20 years in prison over fraud charges relating to the £9billion sale of his company to US firm Hewlett Packard in 2011.
Critics say he is a victim of ‘almost imperialist’ behaviour by the US government. Lynch’s treatment stands in stark contrast to that of Anne Sacoolas, the US diplomat who killed teenager Harry Dunn in a road accident in Britain.
An attempt to extradite Sacoolas to Britain to be prosecuted was rebuffed and she was handed a suspended sentence via videolink to the Old Bailey while staying put in her own country.
David Davis, who was Tory shadow home secretary at the time the US-UK extradition agreement was signed by the Labour government in 2003, said it was a ‘really terrible treaty’. Writing in the Mail, Mr Davis said: ‘Too often, the treaty creates a one-way street, with Briton after Briton heading into US custody. That has consequences for us all.’
Lynch, 57, was remanded in custody on Thursday by a judge in California after arriving on a commercial flight accompanied by US marshals.
The businessman had fought extradition for nearly four years, arguing he ought to be tried in Britain.
He ran out of avenues of appeal last month and is thought to have subsequently agreed the date of his travel to the US to face prosecution on the understanding he would remain on bail.
However, Judge Charles Breyer ordered Lynch to pay an £80million bond, hand over his passport and to be placed under 24-hour armed guard, paid for by himself, at an address in San Francisco.
Lynch’s team are understood to have been unaware that he would face a requirement to be under armed guard. Until the bail conditions are met he is to remain in custody, thought likely to be at the court house or a police holding cell rather than a prison.
The judge concluded that the businessman presented ‘a serious and substantial risk of flight’ because of his wealth, estimated by the court at £360million. The judge rejected Lynch’s argument that his use of legal means to fight extradition ‘does not indicate that he would resort to illegal remedies by absconding before trial in this case’.
Lynch, who is married with two teenage children, pleaded not guilty to the 17 charges he faces. A trial date has not yet been set.
He was once lauded as the UK’s answer to Microsoft’s Bill Gates, but the sale of his company Autonomy soon turned sour.
Within a year, new owners Hewlett Packard (HP) wrote down the value of the business by £7billion and later brought a civil lawsuit in London against Lynch and Autonomy’s former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain. A UK judge ruled in January last year that Lynch had defrauded HP by inflating the value of Autonomy.
For his part, Lynch had said HP did not know what it was doing with Autonomy, and was out of its depth in understanding his technology. Meanwhile, the US brought criminal charges against Lynch for wire fraud and securities fraud.
In 2019, Lynch’s former colleague Hussain was convicted of fraud in the US and sentenced to five years in prison.
The US-UK extradition act of 2003 came into force in 2007. Mr Davis said: ‘The extradition treaty negotiated by Tony Blair was sold to Parliament as a measure to deal with terrorists, murderers and paedophiles.
‘Instead, it is being used to pursue traders, bankers and businesspeople. It means an entrepreneur who falls out with an American company – as Dr Lynch did – can be seized from our shores.’
Mr Davis told Sky News: ‘We send three times as many people to America as they send to us.’ And he accused the US government of ‘almost imperialist behaviour... it’s almost Orwellian really’.
He pointed out that other allies such as France and Germany did not allow America such extradition powers over its citizens. Thomas Garner, extradition partner at London law firm Fladgate, said: ‘The bail set by the US court is by UK standards extraordinarily high and is a clear example of the differing approaches of the US and UK when it comes to prosecuting allegations of white collar crime.’
Business figures including lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman and former HBOS chairman Lord Stevenson reportedly wrote to Rishi Sunak earlier this year to argue against the move to have Lynch face trial in the US.
They said it would see a treaty ‘enacted swiftly after 9/11 to enable the pursuit of terrorists deployed to settle a commercial case already being considered by the UK courts’.