A bunch of outstanding British enterprise figures have written to the prime minister to object to the potential US extradition of Mike Lynch, the software program tycoon.
Sky News has learnt that entrepreneurs together with Brent Hoberman, the co-founder of Lastminute.com, and FTSE-100 boardroom veterans equivalent to Lord Stevenson of Coddenham, the previous HBOS and Pearson chairman, have signed a letter to Rishi Sunak complaining about US authorities’ “unreasonable” use of an extradition treaty.
Mr Lynch engineered the sale of Autonomy, the London-listed software program firm, to Hewlett-Packard for $11bn.
The deal has been mired in litigation for years, after HP alleged that Mr Lynch and quite a few colleagues had manipulated Autonomy’s accounts to inflate its worth.
A civil case resulted in HP “substantially succeeding” in its claims in January final 12 months, though Mr Justice Hildyard stated it was possible that the ensuing damages could be decrease than the $5bn being claimed by the American software program large.
Mr Lynch is now interesting in opposition to a ruling that he might be extradited to the US to face felony proceedings, with a choice anticipated within the close to future.
Sources stated the letter to Mr Sunak had additionally been signed by Sir John Rose, the previous Rolls-Royce Holdings chief government, and Martina King, a former Yahoo! government.
If Mr Lynch’s extradition was to happen, the letter stated, it might see a treaty “enacted swiftly after 9/11 to enable the pursuit of terrorists deployed to settle a commercial case already being considered by the UK courts”.
The group of signatories described this as “deeply worrying to anyone running a business in the UK”.
They added that it was “both bizarre and deeply unsettling to see a British founder of a British business, whose dispute is still being considered by a British court, extradited to the US”.
“This sequence of events would clearly intrude on the sovereignty of the British courts and suggest the US can disregard our laws.”
A spokesman for Mr Lynch declined to remark.
Source: information.sky.com”