Hewlett Packard chief cites ‘fiduciary duty’ to pursue lawsuit against Mike Lynch’s estate after yacht sinks

The chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprises says his company has a “fiduciary duty” to pursue a civil lawsuit against the billionaire British tech mogul, who drowned along with his daughter and several associates last month when his yacht luxurious sank off the coast of Sicily.

Antonio Neri, whose company successfully sued Mike Lynch for fraud in connection with the disastrous 2011 sale of his software company to HPE, told Bloomberg News on Wednesday: “Basically, we believe that the things that happened were not in interest of the shareholders, and we have to understand that.”

HPE has asked a British judge to award it $4 billion in damages after a High Court ruled that Lynch and his former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, cooked the books at now-defunct software company Autonomy Corporation before it was acquired by the American technology giant for $11.7 billion in 2011.

HPE’s acquisition of Autonomy catapulted Lynch into the stratosphere of Britain’s richest tycoons.

But within a year of the deal, HPE announced an $8.8 billion write-down of Autonomy’s value — $5 billion of which was due to what it claimed were accounting irregularities.

Lynch and Hussain denied the allegations.

Hussain was eventually convicted of wire fraud and securities fraud and sentenced to five years in a US federal prison.

HPE filed suit against Lynch. The lawsuit was one of the costliest and longest legal battles ever in the UK.

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of HPE.

The company has requested 4 billion dollars in damages, but the judge indicated that the amount could be too high.

The decision is expected by the end of the year.

“It is HPE’s intention to follow the proceedings to their conclusion,” the company said in a statement last week – just days after Lynch’s body was recovered from the seabed off the coast of Italy.

Earlier this year, Lynch, who was often referred to in the UK press as “Britain’s Bill Gates”, was acquitted by a federal jury in San Francisco of more than a dozen charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy regarding allegations that he sought to blow. Autonomy sales.

In August. Lynch, 19, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and his wife were among 22 people on board his superyacht Bayesian when it sank off the coast of the Sicilian town of Porticello, which was hit by a powerful tornado before. dawn

Lynch, his daughter and five others died. His wife, Angela Bacares, and 14 others – among them a one-year-old child – managed to escape from the boat and reach the shore safely before the ship capsized.

Last week, HPE told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper it still intends to collect damages from Lynch’s estate, despite a public perception that the company, which has a market cap of $33.43 billion, is showing insensitivity to a grieving family.

Lynch and his daughter are survived by his wife, Bacares, and another daughter who was not on the ill-fated yacht.

“It was a sad situation,” Neri said of the tragic deaths, adding, “Once the judge goes ahead, we’ll regroup and see what happens next.”