Billionaire Mike Lynch shared personal memories during the trial

Lynch was co-founder and former CEO of Autonomy, a software company that he sold to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. The deal was heavily criticized for the technology giant. HP had to write off $8.8 billion of the $11 billion purchase price it paid and later accused Lynch and other top executives of conspiring to defraud the company and falsifying documents to inflate the company's value.

HP sued Autonomy and largely won in a civil case in the UK. In another US criminal case, Autonomy's former CFO, Sushovan Hussain, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of wire fraud and conspiracy and was sentenced to five years in prison. Lynch and Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy's vice president of finance, were also charged with conspiracy and fraud in another US criminal case. After a six-year legal saga, including a three-month jury trial in federal court in San Francisco, both men were acquitted in early June. Just months later, they died on the same day, miles apart, in bizarre accidents.

Transcripts from Lynch's criminal trial this year — at which he took the unusual step of testifying in his own defense — reveal fascinating details of his life and include vignettes from his childhood and early years. In response to questions from his own defense attorney, Chris Morvillo, who also died in the yachting accident, he spoke of the early experiences that shaped his worldview and offered insight into the life of the man whose shocking death sparked worldwide interest.

Lynch's early life

Lynch, who was 59 when he died, was born into a working-class Irish family from east London but eventually attended the famously elite University of Cambridge, where he eventually earned a doctorate in artificial neural networks. The son of a fireman and a nurse, his description of his own life suggested he was living a British version of the American dream.

To illustrate his parents' financial difficulties, he told jurors: “The family story is that the day after they were married they had to go to the bank manager and ask him for a loan which came to four pounds – I think that's about six dollars – so we always joke in the family that we started at minus six dollars and worked our way up from there.”

Lynch acknowledged his good fortune, describing how he won a scholarship to a prestigious private school for gifted students thanks to a 17th-century London Lord Mayor. The mayor was also a draper – someone who used to sell fabrics and curtains – and bequeathed his wealth “to the education of poor boys,” Lynch said.

“The great irony of life is that a man in the 17th century changed my life,” he said.

At 16, Lynch's mother got him a job at a hospital, and the future tycoon began mopping floors. “I was very – I'm still a devilish mop, so I can do it,” he said.

“Your credibility is at stake here, Dr. Lynch,” said his lawyer Morvillo.

“Give me a mop and I'll show you,” Lynch replied. “It's an art form, you know,” he said, “but another topic.”

The transcript shows that this exchange sparked laughter in the courtroom.

“Whatever you want to do, just do it.”

Eventually, Lynch said, he became a hospital porter, rolling people around in beds, before reaching the pinnacle of his hospital career: he became “the guy who handed out the jam sandwiches and the tea.”

“And tea is an incredibly important thing in British culture,” he said.

“It turned out to be an incredibly important job and had a big impact on me,” he added.

The young Lynch finished his shifts on the geriatric ward, where nurses didn't have time to talk to patients, he said. “When you're 16, you think you're invincible,” he recalls. “And then … you talk to a 95-year-old, and he knows he's not leaving the hospital, and he tells you all the things he wouldn't tell anybody else, and you hear about his life, and then you realize what that arc of life is, and that's a great thing.”

“There's also the day when you turn the corner in your ambulance, you look at the ward, and the bed is empty,” Lynch continued. “And that made me realize I just have to do it. Do something,” he said. “Whatever you want to do, just do it.”

The man who became known as Britain's Bill Gates also weighed in on the subject of class. Lynch reminded his US audience that in Britain, where health care is universal, hospitals are filled with people from all walks of life, “and you learn that you must never judge people from a distance. Very rich people sometimes treat you very kindly or they can be awful, and people who probably have a similar job to you can be wonderful and kind or awful,” he told the court. “And it was just down to the individuals.”

Later in his testimony, Lynch used an analogy to explain his interpretation of the evidence presented by the prosecution regarding Autonomy's alleged plans to defraud Hewlett-Packard and lie to auditors.

“You have to remember that even in the cleanest kitchen, you can find bacteria under the microscope. This is real, and if it didn't exist, it would be very unusual. So I don't think it was any different with Autonomy. [from other companies]”, he said.

The prosecution, of course, disagreed. Throughout the trial, opposing counsel used multiple pieces of evidence—including emails dating to the time of the sale—to prove that Lynch and Chamberlain knew about Autonomy's financial misconduct.

In closing, prosecutor Robert Leach told jurors that unlike the other witnesses in the Autonomy case, “Dr. Lynch was obviously at the top. He was in control. He dominated.”

As it turned out, the jury was not convinced.