Fallen tech star Mike Lynch painted as fraud mastermind in Hewlett-Packard trial

Mike Lynch leaves the Rolls Building in London following the civil case over his £8.4 billion sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011 (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Prosecutors in the US have painted British former tech star Mike Lynch as the ruthless mastermind of an 11-billion-dollar (£8.64 billion) deal that allegedly defrauded Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett-Packard (HP).

But his lawyer depicted him as a visionary who was made a scapegoat for a desperate buyer’s bad decision.