The HP/Autonomy/Mike Lynch debacle has moved up a gear. Earlier this week, in a SEC filing, HP stated that the Serious Fraud Office had opened an investigation on 6th Feb 13. This is the first time that had been confirmed. Then, yesterday, the SFO posted on its website that it was now trying to determine if its own use of Autonomy software caused a conflict of interest. BTW - that hasn't seemed to stop other Autonomy users like the SEC or the USDoJ from getting involved in the HP/Autonomy case.
If that is the case, it does beggar the question whether this could be used by other suppliers. “We supply banking services to the SFO, so you can’t investigate us…” Also, if the SFO can’t investigate Autonomy, who can? Mind you the SFO has such a long history of abortive cases that you can’t blame them for treading carefully.
The US FRS is already investigating the Autonomy affair as well as the UK’s Financial Reporting Council. According to Business Insider, Mike Lynch has appointed “the famous criminal defense lawyer Reid Weingarten” to defend him. He was the lawyer in the Worldcom and Enron cases – both of which he lost if my memory serves me correctly.. In addition, the ex-Autonomy team has appointed UK law firm Clifford Chance. Lynch continues to say that all the allegations are ‘completely and utterly wrong’.
