Ex-Autonomy CEO Lynch Faces New Fraud, Conspiracy Charges

(Bloomberg) -- Michael Lynch, the former chief executive officer of Autonomy Corp., faces fresh criminal charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy added Friday by U.S. prosecutors to his November indictment.

• The conspiracy charge includes an alleged “hush money” payment to prevent unnamed people from testifying in court
• The new charges come as Lynch begins a$5.1 billion civil trial brought by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.
• “These are baseless, egregious charges issued on the eve of the trial in the U.K., where this case belongs, and Dr. Lynch denies them vigorously": Lynch’s spokesperson
• The original indictment stems from the British software maker’s 2011 sale to Hewlett-Packard
• The charges follow a failed bid by Invoke Capital, a London-based venture capital firm founded by Lynch, to resist disclosing details about transactions that prosecutors have said raise concerns about “potential hush money”
• The case is U.S. v. Lynch, 18-cr-00577, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco)

To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net

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