SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Monday painted one-time British tech star Mike Lynch as the ruthless mastermind of an $11 billion deal that defrauded Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett Packard.
But his lawyer depicted him as a visionary who was made a scapegoat for a desperate buyer’s bad decision.
The contrasting portraits of Lynch, 58, emerged at the start of a criminal trial revolving around HP’s 2011 acquisition of British software maker Autonomy — a deal that was initially celebrated as a coup, but instead unraveled into a costly debacle.
Lynch, once hailed as an example of British ingenuity, is facing 16 felony counts of fraud and conspiracy that could send
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