‘Links’: Darktrace boss Poppy Gustafsson
The family of technology tycoon Mike Lynch has quietly slashed its stake in Darktrace by selling shares worth an estimated £100 million.
Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, who owns most of the couple’s stake, has cut her holding in the cybersecurity giant by over a third in the past year. The most recent share sale came last month, leaving her with just 7 per cent.
Lynch, once dubbed ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’, is on the brink of being handed to the American authorities to face criminal fraud charges related to the $11 billion (£9 billion) sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
It follows a damning High Court judgment last year when he and his finance director were found to have duped the US company into overpaying for Autonomy.
Lynch told The Mail on Sunday last month that efforts to extradite him to the US are an ‘affront to the sovereignty of British courts’. He also appeared to dismiss the furore over alleged fraud, claiming that no money went missing.
Lynch was one of Darktrace’s original backers when it was founded in Cambridge ten years ago. He and his wife remain two of the firm’s largest shareholders, holding a combined 11.25 per cent.
Darktrace has been hit by blistering criticism from short-seller Quintessential Capital Management.
The US-based hedge fund – run by Israeli former special forces paratrooper Gabriel Grego – said last month that Darktrace may have ‘overstated’ profits and held links to offshore ‘shell companies’ manned by ‘individuals with ties to organised crime, money-laundering and fraud’.
Darktrace says it has full confidence in its accounting and financial statements. Lynch’s links to Darktrace have caused issues for chief executive Poppy Gustafsson. The FTSE 250 firm was accused by Quintessential of being ‘led or strongly influenced’ by those linked to the Autonomy debacle.
Shares in Darktrace have fallen by 40 per cent over the past year and it is now valued at £1.7 billion. Bacares and Lynch were both contacted for comment.
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