UK tech giant founder arrested over US extradition - BBC News

The founder of UK software firm Autonomy has submitted himself for arrest as part of an extradition process brought by the US over charges of conspiracy and fraud.

Mike Lynch sold Autonomy to US computer giant Hewlett Packard (HP) for $8.4bn in 2011.

But he faces allegations that he fraudulently inflated the value of Autonomy before the sale.

Dr Lynch's lawyers said he "vigorously rejects all the allegations".

Chris Movillo and Reid Weingarten said Dr Lynch was "determined to continue to fight these charges".

They said Wednesday's move to submit himself for arrest was a "formality" and he had been released on bail of £10m by Westminster Magistrates' Court. The full hearing of the case will begin later this year.

• Autonomy ex-finance boss sentenced to jail
• Autonomy boss in 'deliberate fraud'

Dr Lynch has been facing civil charges at the High Court in London, where HP is suing him for damages over the deal. But separately the US Department of Justice (DoJ) is pursuing criminal charges against him.

"The US Department of Justice should not have commenced extradition proceedings prior to the judgment of the English High Court," Dr Lynch's lawyers said in a statement.

They added: "Since HP first raised these allegations more than seven years ago, Dr Lynch has steadfastly denied them and has worked hard to properly respond and set the record straight.

"Dr Lynch has now answered HP's claims in the appropriate forum, the High Court in London, where he attended court every day of the 10-month trial.

"He has not hidden, nor has he shied away from defending his conduct. Having patiently and diligently defended the case in England for several years, he awaits the civil trial judgment."

'Artificially inflated'

The UK's Serious Fraud Office investigated the deal in 2013, before dropping the case two years later because of "insufficient evidence".

Autonomy was founded by Mr Lynch in 1996. It developed software that could extract useful information from "unstructured" sources of data such as phone-calls, emails or video, and then do things such as suggest answers to a call-centre operator or monitor TV channels for words or subjects.

Before it was bought by HP, it had headquarters in San Francisco and Cambridge in the UK.

In 2010, about 68% of Autonomy's reported revenues came from the US and elsewhere in the Americas.

HP and US prosecutors allege that Mr Lynch and other former Autonomy executives artificially inflated the software company's revenues and earnings between 2009 and 2011, causing HP to overpay for the firm.

But Mr Lynch has argued that HP used the allegations to cover up its own mismanagement of Autonomy after the 2011 deal.

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2020-02-06 03:34:18Z
52780592369226

UK tech giant founder arrested over US extradition - BBC News

The founder of UK software firm Autonomy has submitted himself for arrest as part of an extradition process brought by the US over charges of conspiracy and fraud.

Mike Lynch sold Autonomy to US computer giant Hewlett Packard (HP) for $8.4bn in 2011.

But he faces allegations that he fraudulently inflated the value of Autonomy before the sale.

Dr Lynch's lawyers said he "vigorously rejects all the allegations".

Chris Movillo and Reid Weingarten said Dr Lynch was "determined to continue to fight these charges".

They said Wednesday's move to submit himself for arrest was a "formality" and he had been released on bail of £10m by Westminster Magistrates' Court. The full hearing of the case will begin later this year.

• Autonomy ex-finance boss sentenced to jail
• Autonomy boss in 'deliberate fraud'

Dr Lynch has been facing civil charges at the High Court in London, where HP is suing him for damages over the deal. But separately the US Department of Justice (DoJ) is pursuing criminal charges against him.

"The US Department of Justice should not have commenced extradition proceedings prior to the judgment of the English High Court," Dr Lynch's lawyers said in a statement.

They added: "Since HP first raised these allegations more than seven years ago, Dr Lynch has steadfastly denied them and has worked hard to properly respond and set the record straight.

"Dr Lynch has now answered HP's claims in the appropriate forum, the High Court in London, where he attended court every day of the 10-month trial.

"He has not hidden, nor has he shied away from defending his conduct. Having patiently and diligently defended the case in England for several years, he awaits the civil trial judgment."

'Artificially inflated'

The UK's Serious Fraud Office investigated the deal in 2013, before dropping the case two years later because of "insufficient evidence".

Autonomy was founded by Mr Lynch in 1996. It developed software that could extract useful information from "unstructured" sources of data such as phone-calls, emails or video, and then do things such as suggest answers to a call-centre operator or monitor TV channels for words or subjects.

Before it was bought by HP, it had headquarters in San Francisco and Cambridge in the UK.

In 2010, about 68% of Autonomy's reported revenues came from the US and elsewhere in the Americas.

HP and US prosecutors allege that Mr Lynch and other former Autonomy executives artificially inflated the software company's revenues and earnings between 2009 and 2011, causing HP to overpay for the firm.

But Mr Lynch has argued that HP used the allegations to cover up its own mismanagement of Autonomy after the 2011 deal.

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2020-02-06 02:18:15Z
52780592369226

UK tech giant founder arrested over US extradition - BBC News

The founder of UK software firm Autonomy has submitted himself for arrest as part of an extradition process brought by the US over charges of conspiracy and fraud.

Mike Lynch sold Autonomy to US computer giant Hewlett Packard (HP) for $8.4bn in 2011.

But he faces allegations that he fraudulently inflated the value of Autonomy before the sale.

Dr Lynch's lawyers said he "vigorously rejects all the allegations".

Chris Movillo and Reid Weingarten said Dr Lynch was "determined to continue to fight these charges".

They said Wednesday's move to submit himself for arrest was a "formality" and he had been released on bail of £10m by Westminster Magistrates' Court. The full hearing of the case will begin later this year.

• Autonomy ex-finance boss sentenced to jail
• Autonomy boss in 'deliberate fraud'

Dr Lynch has been facing civil charges at the High Court in London, where HP is suing him for damages over the deal. But separately the US Department of Justice (DoJ) is pursuing criminal charges against him.

"The US Department of Justice should not have commenced extradition proceedings prior to the judgment of the English High Court," Dr Lynch's lawyers said in a statement.

They added: "Since HP first raised these allegations more than seven years ago, Dr Lynch has steadfastly denied them and has worked hard to properly respond and set the record straight.

"Dr Lynch has now answered HP's claims in the appropriate forum, the High Court in London, where he attended court every day of the 10-month trial.

"He has not hidden, nor has he shied away from defending his conduct. Having patiently and diligently defended the case in England for several years, he awaits the civil trial judgment."

'Artificially inflated'

The UK's Serious Fraud Office investigated the deal in 2013, before dropping the case two years later because of "insufficient evidence".

Autonomy was founded by Mr Lynch in 1996. It developed software that could extract useful information from "unstructured" sources of data such as phone-calls, emails or video, and then do things such as suggest answers to a call-centre operator or monitor TV channels for words or subjects.

Before it was bought by HP, it had headquarters in San Francisco and Cambridge in the UK.

In 2010, about 68% of Autonomy's reported revenues came from the US and elsewhere in the Americas.

HP and US prosecutors allege that Mr Lynch and other former Autonomy executives artificially inflated the software company's revenues and earnings between 2009 and 2011, causing HP to overpay for the firm.

But Mr Lynch has argued that HP used the allegations to cover up its own mismanagement of Autonomy after the 2011 deal.

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2020-02-05 21:57:19Z
52780592369226

United Kingdom to ban sale of gas and diesel cars by 2035 - Fox News

Britain announced Tuesday that it plans to ban the sale of new gas and diesel cars by 2035 — five years earlier than its previous target — in a bid to speed up efforts to tackle climate change.

The announcement was timed to coincide with the launch of Britain's plans for the United Nations' climate summit, known as COP26, which is scheduled to be held in Glasgow in November.

(Kirsty O'Connor/PA Images via Getty Images)

But the U.K. government's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions was questioned by the woman who was appointed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to head the Glasgow climate summit — and then was fired last week.

Sacked conference president Claire O'Neill said Britain’s efforts to fight climate change were “miles off track.”

Britain has pledged to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. But the government’s advisory Committee on Climate Change has warned that the country's action to slash carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global warming is lagging far behind what is needed.

The U.K.'s new 2035 target for ending gas and diesel car sales is one of the world's more ambitious. Several countries, including France, plan to stop by 2040. Norway — one of the most aggressive early adopters of electric cars — has a goal, but not a requirement, to eliminate petrol and diesel cars, excluding hybrids, by 2025.

The U.K. says it will bring in a ban on fossil-fuel cars and vans even earlier than 2035 “if a faster transition is feasible.” The ban will also include hybrid vehicles.

But environmental groups said Britain's goal was not ambitious enough.

Rebecca Newsom, head of politics at Greenpeace U.K., said “phasing out the internal combustion engine faster is an important piece of the puzzle.”

“However, pushing the date later than 2030 would vastly reduce the chances of meeting our climate targets, and the potential to deliver thousands of electric vehicle manufacturing jobs,” she said.

The auto industry reacted coolly to the announcement. Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said the automakers were already moving toward “a zero emissions future,” and said the government had “moved the goalposts for consumers and industry.”

Johnson kicked off a year of buildup to the climate conference Tuesday alongside naturalist David Attenborough and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte at London's Science Museum. Italy is hosting a preparatory meeting for the conference.

The British prime minister said the world had seen "a catastrophic period of global addiction to hydrocarbons that got totally out of control."

“We have to deal with our CO2 emissions. And that is why the U.K. is calling for us to get to net zero as soon as possible, for every country to announce credible targets to get there — that's what we want from Glasgow,” Johnson said. "And that's why we have pledged here in the U.K. to deliver net zero by 2050."

Britain’s tenure at the helm of COP26 is getting off to a rocky start. On Friday, Johnson sacked O’Neill, a former British government minister appointed last year to head up the event.

The Conservative government said it had decided that a current government minister should fill the role, but gave no reason for the change of heart. A replacement has not been announced.

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O’Neill strongly criticized the prime minister in a letter published Tuesday in the Financial Times.

“When you asked me to be your COP President … you promised to ‘lead from the front’ and asked me what was needed: ‘money, people, just tell us!’” she wrote. “Sadly, these promises and offers are not close to being met."

O'Neill said the Cabinet sub-committee on climate that Johnson promised to chair has not met even once.

“You had a vision for Brexit and you got Brexit done. As I write, we have less than 7,000 hours before the start of COP26, where we have a chance to set a new global vision for climate recovery and build a new consensus for global climate action. Please get this done too,” O'Neill wrote.

The prime minister's spokesman, James Slack, declined to respond to O'Neill's criticisms.

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2020-02-05 13:18:34Z
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Coronavirus: Final UK flight to bring home Britons from Wuhan - BBC News

The UK government is chartering a final flight to bring British nationals back from the Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak.

The plane will leave in the early hours of Sunday morning and land at RAF Brize Norton, the Foreign Office said.

It comes as Britons in mainland China have been urged to leave the country after the outbreak claimed more lives.

More than 100 UK nationals and family members have already been evacuated to Britain from Wuhan.

About 165 Britons are reported to remain in Hubei province, where the outbreak began, and 108 are believed to have asked the Foreign Office for help to leave.

At least 427 people have died after contracting the virus and there have been more than 20,000 confirmed cases, most of them in China.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: "We have been working round the clock to help British nationals leave Hubei province, on UK, French and New Zealand flights.

"The Foreign Office is chartering a second and final UK flight with space to help all British nationals and their dependants remaining in Hubei to leave.

"I encourage all British nationals in Hubei to register with our teams if they want to leave on this flight."

On Friday, 83 UK citizens were repatriated on a flight out of Wuhan arranged by the UK government. Another 11 Britons joined them on Sunday on a French flight.

A further eight UK nationals and six of their family members left on a flight to New Zealand on Tuesday.

It has since emerged that a Belgian woman who was on Sunday's flight tested positive for the virus.

All of the Britons are now in quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral for 14 days - the incubation period of the virus - to ensure they are not infected.

One British passenger, Anthony May-Smith, who arrived in the UK on Sunday, was taken to hospital in Oxford to be tested for potential coronavirus.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast the test came back negative but that Mr May-Smith has returned to quarantine at Arrowe Park "because the test… doesn't work until the coronavirus symptoms come through".

Mr Hancock advised anyone who thought they might have symptoms to not leave home and to call 111.

Mr Hancock said it was "low" risk that an infected person who was not yet showing symptoms could pass on the virus.

There have been two confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK - a student at the University of York and one of their relatives. They are being treated at the specialist infectious diseases unit at Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary.

Meanwhile, one British man in China, who fears he contracted the virus in November, has been told he can return to the UK after the Chinese authorities gave him his passport back.

Jamie Morris, 23, from New Tredegar in South Wales had said he did not know when he might be able to return from Wuhan because he had submitted his passport in order to extend his residency permit.

He will now be able to join other British nationals on the final flight home.

On Tuesday, the Foreign Office advised Britons to leave China to minimise the risk of exposure to coronavirus.

The UK is also moving non-essential staff out from its embassy and consulates in the country.

The only two UK airlines serving China - British Airways and Virgin Atlantic - have suspended their flights between the countries because of fears about the spread of the virus.

But other commercial flights to the UK remain available in some parts of China.

The virus has now spread to more than two dozen nations.

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it does not yet qualify as a "pandemic".

---

Are you a British citizen in China? Will you leave the country? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

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2020-02-05 09:22:30Z
52780579291157

Brexit: Croatia wishes the UK 'good riddance' on leaving EU - BBC News

The message to the UK from Croatia's EU ambassador ahead of Brexit may have been abrupt, but it was apparently all meant in jest.

Irena Andrassy told British counterpart Sir Tim Barrow: "Thank you, goodbye, and good riddance."

Her parting shot came last week as she chaired the last EU meeting involving the UK as a member state.

The UK envoy took the comment with good humour at the weekly meeting of EU ambassadors.

Croatia currently holds the six-month EU presidency.

"The Brits saw the funny side and understood how it was meant. But history will show that these were the last words from the EU to the UK's ambassador before Brexit," one official in the room is quoted as saying by the Financial Times.

The meeting came two days before the UK left the bloc on Friday. Sir Tim, who was the UK's permanent representative, has since become the UK's ambassador to the EU.

A Croatian spokesman in Brussels said the remark came during "a humorous exchange between friends and in a closed session; it was warm and friendly and with the best intentions". The two ambassadors were on very good terms and saw each other in a formal setting regularly, he added.

Trade talks between the UK and the EU are due to begin in March and the bloc's own approach to the negotiations needs to be agreed by all 27 member states.

While the UK officially left the EU at 23:00 GMT on Friday, it will remain largely wedded to EU rules during a transition period which ends in December this year.

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2020-02-04 16:40:21Z
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Britain to ban the sale of new gas, diesel and hybrid cars from 2035 - NBCNews.com

LONDON — Britain will ban the sale of new gas, diesel and hybrid vehicles from 2035, five years earlier than planned, in an attempt to reduce air pollution and fossil fuel emissions, the government announced on Tuesday.

Britain's step amounts to a victory for electric cars that if copied globally could hit the wealth of oil producers, as well as transform the car industry and one of the icons of 20th Century capitalism: the automobile itself.

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The U.K. isn’t alone in its efforts. More than a dozen countries around the world have announced plans to crack down on new sales of gas and diesel vehicles in the next decade or two. France plans to ban the sale of fossil fuel-powered cars by 2040 and Norway's Parliament has set a non-binding goal that by 2025 all cars should be zero emissions.

Sept. 18, 201901:20

In addition to bringing forward to the date of the ban on new sales of gas and diesel vehicles, the government also included hybrid vehicles in the ban for the first time. It said that it would bring forward the date even closer if it is possible.

Last year, the U.K. pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050, one of the most ambitious targets of any leading economy. The ban on sales of new gas and diesel vehicles fits into that goal.

"We know as a country, as a society, as a planet, as a species, we must now act," said Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a launch even for a U.N. Climate Change Conference planned for November in Glasgow, Scotland, known as COP26.

According to experts, the targets of countries to ban sales of new gas and diesel vehicles won’t be effective without accompanying action.

“Those targets need to be complemented by whole range of measures at the national and regional level, such as informing consumers about the vehicles on offer or building of the necessary charging infrastructure,” said Peter Mock, managing director of the International Council on Clean Transportation in Europe.

In Britain, diesel and gasoline models still account for most new vehicle registrations in Britain. However, registrations of electric vehicles rose 144 percent between 2018 and 2019, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

Rachel Elbaum

Rachel Elbaum is a London-based editor, producer and writer. 

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2020-02-04 12:34:00Z
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