Mike Lynch, the billionaire tech entrepreneur who died in a yacht accident that killed seven people on August 19, was a prominent figure in the UK. A colorful figure and self-made entrepreneur, his latest testimony in a legal battle in the US could shed some light on a controversial tech leader with an almost unbelievable rags-to-riches story.
Lynch was the co-founder and former CEO of Autonomy, a software company he sold to Hewlett-Packard in 2011, becoming I was criticized a lot. HP was forced to write off $8.8 billion of the $11 billion price paid, and later accused Lynch and other top executives of conspiring to defraud the company and falsifying documents to inflate the company’s value.
HP files lawsuit against Autonomy largely prevailed In a civil trial in the UK and in a separate US criminal case, Autonomy’s former CFO, Sushovan Hussain, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of wire fraud and conspiracy and was sentenced to five years in prison. Lynch and Autonomy’s vice president of finance, Stephen Chamberlain, were also charged with conspiracy and wire fraud in a separate US criminal case. After a six-year legal saga, including a three-month jury trial in federal court in San Francisco, the two men were acquitted earlier this year. Just a few months later, they died on the same day, miles apart, in freak accidents.
Transcripts of Lynch’s criminal trial this year – in which he took over unusual step In this book, Ronald Rickard reveals fascinating details about his life, including glimpses into his childhood and early years. Answering questions from his criminal lawyer, Chris Morvillo, who also died in the yacht accident, he talks about the early experiences that helped shape his worldview, and offers insights into the man whose horrific death sparked global interest.
Lynch’s early life
Lynch, who has died aged 59, was born into a working-class Irish immigrant family in East London, but ended up attending Famous for elitism Cambridge University, where he eventually earned a PhD in artificial neural networks. The son of a firefighter father and a nurse mother, his picture of his life path suggests he has lived a British version of the American dream.
To illustrate the financial difficulties his parents faced, he told the jury: “The family story is that the day after they got married they had to go and beg the bank manager for a loan, which was £4, I think that’s about $6, so we always joked in the family that we started at minus $6, and we measured up from there.”
Lynch acknowledged his good fortune, describing how he had won a scholarship to a prestigious private school for bright students, thanks to the Lord Mayor of London in the 17th century. The Lord Mayor was also a draper and curtain merchant—someone who historically sold cloth and curtains—and had left his fortune “to educate poor boys,” Lynch said.
“So the great irony of life is that a man in the 17th century actually changed my life,” he said.
At 16, Lynch got a job at a hospital through his mother, and the future business mogul started cleaning floors. “I was a very devilish cleaner, so I could do it,” he said.
“Your credibility is at stake here, Dr. Lynch,” said his attorney, Morvillo.
“Give me a mop and I’ll show you,” Lynch replied. “It’s an art form, you know, but there’s another conversation.”
The transcript shows that the conversation sparked laughter in the courtroom.
“Whatever you want to do, just do it.”
Eventually, Lynch became a hospital porter, according to his testimony, moving patients around on hospital beds, before reaching the pinnacle of his hospital career: becoming “the guy who hands out jam sandwiches and tea.”
“Tea is very important in British culture,” he added.
“It turned out to be a very important and very useful job for me,” he added.
The young Lynch was finishing his shifts on a geriatric ward, where nurses didn’t have time to talk to patients, he said. “When you’re 16, you think you’re invincible,” he recalled. “Then … you talk to someone who’s 95, and they know they’re never going to leave the hospital, and they tell you all the things they won’t tell anyone else, and you hear about their lives, and then you realize what an arc that is, and that’s a huge thing.”
“There’s also the day when you turn around in your cart and you look down the ward and the bed is empty,” Lynch continued. “What drove me to that was the realization that you have to keep working. Do things,” he said. “Whatever you want to do, just do it.”
The man who has become known as the British Bill Gates also raised ideas about social class. Lynch reminded his American audience that hospitals in the UK, where health care is universal, are filled with people from all walks of life, and “you learn that you can never judge people from afar. The very wealthy can sometimes be very nice to you or they can be terrible, and people who might have been in a similar job to you can be wonderful and kind or they can be terrible,” he told the court. “It’s just about the individual.”
Later in his testimony, Lynch used an analogy to explain his interpretation of evidence presented by prosecutors regarding Autonomy’s alleged schemes to defraud Hewlett-Packard and lie to auditors.
“One thing to keep in mind is that if you stick a microscope into any very clean kitchen, you’re going to find bacteria. That’s real, and if they weren’t there, there would be something very abnormal. So I don’t think Autonomy was any different. [from other companies]”He said.”
But the prosecution, of course, disagreed. During the trial, the opposing side’s lawyers used a variety of evidence—including emails from the period surrounding the sale—to try to prove that Lynch and Chamberlain were aware of Autonomy’s financial irregularities.
In closing, prosecutor Robert Leach told the jury that unlike other witnesses in the case, in the Autonomy Court, “Dr. Lynch was certainly on top. He was in control. He was domineering.”
The jury turned out to be unconvinced.
“Infuriatingly humble alcohol fanatic. Unapologetic beer practitioner. Analyst.”