A Suffolk tech entrepreneur has been acquitted of charges alleging he orchestrated a fraudulent deal worth over £8.6billion where the company had been "cooking the books to inflate its value".

Mike Lynch, 58, once hailed as Britain’s king of technology, was extradited to the US last May and stood trial in a 11-week criminal trial from March this year where Hewlett Packard (HP) accused him of 15 felony counts of fraud and conspiracy. 

Dr Lynch was found not guilty on Thursday by a federal court jury in San Francisco and he was acquitted of all 15 felony counts he was facing.

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HP had pressed charges after Dr Lynch sold Autonomy to them in 2011. Autonomy was a business software firm that he founded and then oversaw as chief executive.

The tech giant claimed it had evidence that Autonomy had been "cooking the books to inflate its value after the takeover was completed".

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The entrepreneur, who has lived near Woodbridge, defended himself in the trial alongside former vice-president Stephen Chamberlain.

Towards the end of the trial, US District Judge Charles Breyer also threw out a count of securities fraud included in the US Justice Department case against him in 2018.

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The entrepreneur's case was made successful as his lawyers depicted him as a visionary who was made a scapegoat for a desperate buyer’s bad decision.

Being accused of the fraud felonies was a dramatic turn in fortune for Dr Lynch's career, who was once described as the 'Bill Gates of Britain'.