British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who founded the data analytics software company Autonomy, was acquitted Thursday in a US federal court on 15 fraud charges. He was accused of illegally inflating revenue before selling Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $11B.
Government prosecutors alleged that under Lynch's leadership, Autonomy, which was advertised as a software company, also hid sales of hardware, arguing the company "paid customers to buy software" to fraudulently boost revenue by millions.The jury in the San Francisco, Calif., federal trial found Lynch not guilty on one charge of conspiracy and 14 counts of wire fraud. The trial was part of a years-long legal battle that began when HP downgraded Autonomy's value to $8.8B within a year.
This acquittal shows why the UK-US extradition treaty needs reform. Since the treaty's signing in 2003, which was meant to target murderers, terrorists, and pedophiles, the vast majority of British citizens sent to America to stand trial have been non-violent, white-collar suspects. A mere accusation of nonviolent offenses — without a warrant, for that matter — should not be the basis to send Britons across the ocean and into the hands of foreign prosecutors.
Opponents of the extradition treaty act as if it advantages the US, but that's neither true legally nor in practice. The "reasonable suspicion" requirement for the US and "probable cause" requirement for the UK may sound unfair, but both country's have equal power to make and refuse requests. Depending on the year in question, the UK has also refused numerous US requests while Washington accepts every one from their British counterparts.