Matthew Field
Hewlett Packard is pushing to investigate the assets of Mike Lynch’s widow as it seeks to recoup more than £900 million ($1.7 billion) in legal damages.
The US technology giant asked the High Court to appoint administrators over Lynch’s estate, who would manage the holdings and investigate past transactions.
HP suggested this would include administrators of its choice probing Lynch’s past dealings with his family, including his widow, Angela Bacares.
Joseph Curl KC, a barrister for HP, told the court: “As night follows day, that is going to include investigating people, not just Bacares, but including Bacares.”
A judge awarded HP £920 million in damages in March linked to the US tech group’s $US11 billion ($15.3 billion) takeover of Autonomy, a company founded by Lynch, in 2011.
Lynch, 59, was adjudged to have inflated Autonomy’s sales using dubious accounting tricks ahead of the sale. However, a separate US criminal trial cleared him of wrongdoing in 2024.
The tech tycoon, who was dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, died when his superyacht, the Bayesian, capsized off the coast of Sicily in August that year in a freak storm.
His teenage daughter, Hannah, and five others also lost their lives in the incident. Bacares survived.
HP is now trying to secure the £920 million in damages from the Lynch estate. The ruling threatens to bankrupt it as the estate’s value has been estimated at about £330 million.
Lawyers for HP said it would be necessary to examine whether Lynch had “taken steps to preserve assets to render themselves judgment proof” in the face of vast legal claims.
When an estate is bankrupt, if the administrator finds transactions that have been made at an undervalue or in preference to the beneficiary, it can seek to have them reversed to repay creditors.
Bacares owned a £300 million stake in Darktrace, a cyber security business that Lynch helped form, as well as their Suffolk house.
HP has been seeking to appoint Interpath Advisory, the restructuring firm, to handle the estate. Bacares has applied to appoint Jeremy Sandleson, a former partner at Clifford Chance, who has long represented the family.
Lawyers for HP argued Sandleson had a “fundamental and irreconcilable” conflict of interest given his ties to the family.
Bacares’s lawyers insisted that the estate could be handled “most delicately and effectively by Sandleson”.
On Wednesday, lawyers for Sandleson said he was willing to take on the appointment himself or a joint role alongside Interpath and disputed whether he could be seen as a friend of Bacares. He added there was “no evidence at all” that Sandleson had advised Lynch on personal financial transactions.
Lawyers for Bacares said he should take on a solo role acting for the estate.
The court also heard that Lynch’s estate had filed an appeal against HP’s fraud claims, which were the subject of a High Court case.
The case continues.
Telegraph, London
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