US prosecutors might “investigate additional individuals” concerned with the firm’s accounting scandal.
HP acquired UK software company Autonomy in 2011, but wrote down its worth in November 2012, claiming that “accounting fraud and inflated financials” from Autonomy officials, including former CEO Mike Lynch, were to blame. HP’s shareholders sued HP for mismanagement, though a settlement was announced in June 2014 and secured in March 2015, before the UK Serious Fraud Office closed its investigation in January 2015, and “ceded legal jurisdiction to US authorities”.
In 2016, it was reported that the case in the UK will continue through to 2018, while Lynch, alongside Hussain, was named in a claim filed for $5.1 billion (€4.7 billion) in damages at the UK High Court in April 2015. Hussain was then charged in the US of “allegedly defrauding investors” last November. Now, Silicon Valley Business Journal has reported that prosecutors “may go after more names” after charging Hussain.
Hussain will soon “make his initial US court appearance”, and in a court filing, it was found that “the US government is taking further steps in the investigation”, with the Justice Department continuing to “investigate the involvement of other persons and the possibility of other offenses arising from the facts and circumstances of this case”, though other targets were not named.
Hussain’s interviews with the FBI will be turned over during the case alongside “other third party reports of witness interviews”, he having “claimed any accounting irregularities were due to differences in the way British and American companies structure their balance sheets”. He received felony charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and the authorities claimed he began “manipulating the company’s balance sheet in 2009”, making at least $7.7 million (€7.2 million).