A San Francisco federal jury acquitted Mike Lynch of all 15 felony counts in the U.S. Autonomy fraud prosecution on June 6, 2024. That was not a case prosecuted by HP, and it did not overturn the separate UK civil ruling against Lynch or the later judgment against his estate.
What “HP loses” means in this case
HP was the alleged victim in the U.S. criminal case; the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought the prosecution. The jury’s acquittal meant Lynch was not convicted of the charges brought against him. It was not a ruling that HP had lost its separate civil claim in the UK, nor an appellate review of that case.
The two proceedings concerned allegations connected to HP’s 2011 acquisition of Autonomy, but they had different parties, forums and outcomes:
| U.S. criminal prosecution | UK civil claim |
|---|---|
| Prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice in federal court in San Francisco. | Brought by Autonomy and HP/HPE-related claimants in the UK High Court. |
| A jury acquitted Lynch on all 15 felony counts on June 6, 2024, after an 11-week trial. | The High Court found for the claimants on substantially all liability claims against Lynch in 2022, then set damages in 2025 and entered a total judgment against his estate in 2026. |
| The criminal trial ended with the acquittal; the DOJ’s indictment stated allegations, not findings of guilt. | A limited appeal is proceeding on some issues, primarily concerning the damages calculation and currency, according to HPE’s September 2026 SEC filing. |
What prosecutors alleged—and what the jury decided
The DOJ’s 2018 indictment alleged that Lynch, former Autonomy chief operating officer Stephen Chamberlain and others inflated Autonomy’s reported revenue from 2009 to 2011. Prosecutors alleged that the scheme involved backdated agreements, contracts with side letters or contingencies, and reciprocal transactions. They also alleged that the defendants misled auditors, analysts, regulators and HP, including by concealing loss-making hardware resales while presenting Autonomy as a “pure software” company.
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Those were allegations in the indictment. The jury acquitted both Lynch and Chamberlain in June 2024. The verdict does not, by itself, establish why the jury reached its decision, and it should not be described as a finding that Autonomy’s accounting was proper in every respect.
After the verdict, Lynch said he looked forward to returning to the UK, his family and innovating in his field, according to the Associated Press. His acquittal was later followed by his death in August 2024, when the Bayesian sank off Sicily.
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Why the separate UK case had a different result
The UK proceeding was a civil claim brought by Autonomy and HP/HPE-related entities, not a second criminal prosecution. The UK High Court’s 2022 liability ruling found for the claimants on substantially all claims against Lynch and former Autonomy CFO Sushovan Hussain, and dismissed Lynch’s counterclaim. The court addressed the amount of damages separately.
On July 22, 2025, the High Court ruled that Lynch’s estate owed £740 million. A March 24, 2026 order set the total judgment at approximately $1.24 billion, including interest and currency effects and reflecting an approximately $145 million offset for previous recoveries. That amount excluded attorneys’ fees, which were to be determined later. HPE’s SEC filing says HP and HPE share equally in any recovery under their separation agreement.
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In May 2025, the claimants reached an agreement with Hussain. That development concerned Hussain, not the jury’s verdict in Lynch’s U.S. criminal trial.
What is still happening with the UK judgment
HPE’s September 2026 SEC filing reported that, on August 25, 2026, the Court of Appeal denied 14 of the Lynch estate’s 18 requested appeal issues but allowed a limited appeal to proceed. The issues allowed to proceed concern primarily the calculation of damages and currency. The filing does not report a final appellate decision, so the appeal’s outcome remains unresolved.
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How the Autonomy story reached the courts
- 2011: HP announced its Autonomy acquisition on August 18 and completed it on October 3. The DOJ described the purchase price as about $11.7 billion in its 2018 release on Hussain’s conviction; the announcement and closing are distinct dates.
- 2018: The DOJ indicted Lynch and Chamberlain in the U.S. Prosecutors alleged accounting manipulation and misrepresentations related to the acquisition. In a separate U.S. trial that year, a jury convicted Hussain, Autonomy’s former CFO, according to the DOJ.
- 2022: The UK High Court ruled for the claimants on substantially all liability claims against Lynch and Hussain.
- 2024: After an 11-week U.S. criminal trial, a jury acquitted Lynch and Chamberlain on June 6. Lynch died in August.
- 2025–2026: The UK High Court set damages against Lynch’s estate, entered the total judgment, and the Court of Appeal later permitted a limited appeal to proceed.
Keep Hussain’s conviction separate from Lynch’s acquittal
The DOJ reported that a U.S. jury convicted Hussain in 2018 of conspiracy, wire fraud and securities fraud. In that case, the department said Hussain’s methods inflated Autonomy’s publicly reported revenue by 14.6% in 2009, 17.9% in 2010, 21.5% in the first quarter of 2011 and 12.4% in the second quarter of 2011. The DOJ also described approximately $53.3 million in 2009, $99.08 million in 2010, $20.09 million in the first quarter of 2011 and $20.85 million in the second quarter of 2011 as resale hardware included in Autonomy revenue in the Hussain case.
Those figures describe the DOJ’s account of evidence in Hussain’s prosecution. They are not findings against Lynch in his later trial, where the jury acquitted him. Treating the two defendants’ separate trial outcomes as interchangeable would misstate the record.
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