By Maria Ward-Brennan
The extradited former Autonomy boss has called on Manchester City and Boris Johnson’s former lawyer for his lawsuit against the UK anti-fraud agency.
Mike Lynch filed a claim against the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to the High Court last month. According to his claim form, it is a data protection claim which seek to access personal data belonging to him.
He has called on a legal team which contains the notable Lord David Pannick KC, along with junior barristers Julianne Kerr Morrison and George Molyneaux, all were instructed by Matthew Getz, partner at Pallas Partners.
Pannick was reportedly on £10,000 an hour during Boris’s Partygate hearing, when treble-winners Manchester City hired him to fight financial fair play breach claims. He was also hired by Microsoft during its legal fight with the competition watchdog over the merger with Activision.
The British entrepreneur was extradited to the US last year on fraud charges where he faces hundreds of years in prison. His trial is due to start in the Northern District of California on 18 March
The charges relate to Hewlett-Packard’s $11bn takeover of Autonomy back in 2011. Hewlett-Packard won a six-year civil fraud suit against Lynch back in 2022 after the High Court ruled that he defrauded the firm by manipulating Autonomy’s accounts to inflate its valuation ahead of the takeover.
Following this, the then-Home Secretary, Priti Patel, approved his extradition to the US as he is set to face 17 fraud charges related to the matter.
His new lawsuit in England links to his criminal charges in the US as he wants to use the data he seeks as part of his defence. As set out in his claim form, Lynch “urgently needs access to the personal data sought by way of the Revised Request. In his view, it is of critical relevance to a limitation argument he reasonably wants to make prior to the start of the US trial.”
It added if he is convicted in the US, each of counts 1-15 carries a maximum custodial sentence of 20 years while count 15 has a maximum custodial sentence of 25 years. In addition, he could face a financial penalty, with total fines of up to the greater of $4m, or twice the gross pecuniary gain or loss caused by the offences, could also be imposed.
He vigorously denies the counts.
His claim form noted that the US Government made an evidentiary request to the UK Government in the form of a mutual legal assistance request. His claim is that he is concerned that the UK requests were made for the improper purpose of seeking to extend the limitation periods against him.
His claim is that the SFO “unlawfully refused and continues to refuse to comply with a data subject access request made on 13 November 2023” by Lynch under the the Data Protection Act 2018.
