Sushovan Hussain, a 55-year-old British citizen, has been sentenced to five years in prison for accounting fraud linked to the 11 billion USD sale of the software company to Hewlett-Packard.
Ex-CFO was also fined 4 million USD and ordered to forfeit an additional 6.1 million USD in a sentence imposed by US district judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco.
HP claims that Autonomy inflated its revenues and a court found that Hussain made false statements to investors about the company ahead of the deal in 2011.
Hussain is also being sued in the UK by HP along with Autonomy’s founder Mike Lynch for 5 billion USD over claims they “committed a deliberate fraud over a sustained period of time” to artificially inflate the firm’s value. Both the accused have denied the claims. That trial began in March and is expected to last several months.
Lynch is counter-suing HP for at least 125 million USD in damages for making “a series of false, misleading and unfair public statements”.
Hussain thanked his friends and family for their support and said he was “deeply sorry” for the pain he had caused them. He said he had been “humbled” by the case and took responsibility for his actions.