Darktrace seeks to reassure market on links to Autonomy
THE boss of Darktrace bought £100,000 of shares in the company after it emerged a serving executive was “part of a clique” behind one of Britain’s biggest corporate frauds, wiping £250m off its value.
Stock exchange filings showed Poppy Gustafsson made the purchase after the company’s chief strategy officer, Nicole Eagan, was linked to the $11bn (£8.8bn) toxic sale of software business Autonomy to Hewlett Packard a decade ago.
Ms Eagan was chief marketing officer at Autonomy when it was sold to Hewlett Packard by the entrepreneur Mike Lynch. HP later wrote its value down by $8.8bn and successfully sued Mr Lynch.
In an update to investors, Darktrace said yesterday: “We see no link between Darktrace and the civil action against Mike Lynch by HP or its subsidiaries.”
This week, High Court judge Mr Justice Hildyard published his detailed findings against Mr Lynch. Shares in Darktrace slumped 15pc to a fresh low after a judgment was handed down.
That judgment revealed Ms Eagan had been “part of a clique” acting on the Autonomy boss’s orders to fraudulently over-inflate reported revenues.
Ms Eagan was under investigation by the US Department of Justice when the High Court proceedings ended in January 2021, the judgment said.
She withdrew from testifying in the case in mid-2019 and resigned her directorship the firm in May 2020.
An American citizen and resident, Ms Eagan was not a named party in the civil Autonomy trial. She remains Darktrace’s chief strategy officer and is part of its executive team.
Darktrace continues to be dogged by its founder and executive team’s links to Autonomy, with its IPO prospectus issued last year saying: “The group may face potential liability arising out of unlawful, and allegedly unlawful, activities in connection with the sale of Autonomy and related matters.”
US prosecutors are pursuing Mr Lynch’s extradition to stand criminal trial over the Autonomy scandal. He maintains his innocence and plans to appeal against the High Court ruling.