Extradited British tech founder Mike Lynch starts U.S. fraud trial

British entrepreneur Mike Lynch arrives at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain, February 12, 2021. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

(Reuters) - Mike Lynch, the wealthy tech founder once hailed as Britain's answer to Steve Jobs, will face a U.S. jury in California on Monday at a trial over the accusation he defrauded Hewlett-Packard in the $11 billion sale of his software company Autonomy.

Federal prosecutors in San Francisco accuse Autonomy co-founder Lynch and former finance executive Stephen Chamberlain of inflating the company's revenue starting in 2009 -- a scheme prosecutors say resulted in HP's disastrous acquisition of the company in 2011.