LONDON — Mike Lynch, one of the U.K.’s most notable tech entrepreneurs and a man that has often been referred to as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” is on the brink of being extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges related to the sale of his firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.

Lynch, 56 years old, has sold Autonomy Software, his software company. HP in 2011 for $11.7 billion, instantly making him one of the wealthiest and most celebrated tech founders in the U.K.

Autonomy’s current market value was 64% lower than HP’s. Wall Street crashed 20% when the deal was made, and Autonomy’s stock price soared to over 70%.

HP declared a $8.8B write-down one year later. It claimed that Autonomy’s data analytics software was not up to its standards and HP had made accounting errors.

HP is primarily accusing Autonomy’s executives inflated the company’s revenues by around $700 million and it sued for $5 billion. Lynch counter-sued leading to an extremely complex legal dispute that has been going on for over a decade.

But there are indications that things may be coming to an end.

Priti Patel, Minister for U.K. Home Office was inaugurated Friday approved Lynch’s extraditionThe U.S. Earlier that day, a British judge ruledLynch was found guilty of plotting to overvalue Autonomy prior to its purchase by HP.

Justice Robert Hildyard ruled that HP prevailed over most of the charges. But, damages to the company would still be substantially lower than $5 billion.

Lynch would not be the first Autonomy employee indicted in the U.S. In May 2019, former CFO Sushovan Hussain was charged with fraud and jailed for five years.

CNBC was Monday informed by a spokesperson from HP that HP is pleased with the decision of the judge.

According to them, “Dr. Lynch & Mr. Hussain deliberately deceived and misled both the market & Hewlett-Packard.”

HPE is glad that the judge held them responsible.”

Lynch’s lawyers didn’t immediately reply to CNBC requests for comment. However, they are reportedly planning to appeal the rulingsLegal experts estimate that the whole process can take around 12 months. His appeal could fail and he may be sent to prison for 20 years.

Many in the U.K tech sector, including Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com don’t think Lynch should be extradited.

Is it right that an U.K.-based businessman who is operating within U.K. law be extradited to America? It isn’t, I believe it’s not and other businesspeople won’t either.” Hoberman told The Sunday Times newspaper.

Lynch was asked by Hoberman to address his audience. Founders Forum event last summerAccording to the newspaper report, he described Autonomy founder “an icon figure for U.K. technology.”

Three quarters of Autonomy’s worth has been written off HP sold what was left of the company to British firm Micro Focus in September 2016 as part of an $8.8 billion deal that involved other HP business units.

“It was a terrible thing that happened in end.” Lynch said at a tech conference in 2016. “The U.K. Model is that there’s no way to stop takeovers. We couldn’t stop Hewlett Packard from making its offer when they came along.

He stated that the problem came a week later after they had signed the agreement. [HP’s leaders]We’re now left with a hardware company that once called us the step-child. It was all missing: the ability to understand clever and high-growth software developers.

U.S. authorities are trying to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (UK) over publication of classified military documents in 2010. He is charged with 18 charges, which means he could be sentenced to a maximum of 175 years in prison.

This month was earlier. Assange won the right to take his extradition case to the U.K.’s top court.

Lynch was able to establish Invoke Capital after the Autonomy sale. It is a venture capital company that invests $1 billion in European start-ups, such as Darktrace, cybersecurity firm, and Sophia Genetics, life sciences firm.

Lynch has been retiring from public activity over the last several years. Lynch left Darktrace’s board, and was no longer an adviser to the British government. Also, he was a former non-executive member on the BBC’s executive committee.

Lynch is also very active in his many hobbies. Lynch stated in 2016 that he is passionate about caring for endangered animals such as Red Poll Cattle at his Suffolk home.

Lynch stated to LeadersIn that she keeps rare breeds during an appearance on LeadersIn. interview. “So, I own cows that died in the 1940s, pigs no one kept since medieval times, and they all have Apple products.”

Lynch claimed that Lynch’s father regrettably didn’t have the opportunity to go to college. He understood the importance education was so it was something that was fostered in my family.” Lynch told LeadersIn.

At the age of 11, Lynch won a scholarship to attend the exclusive Bancroft’s School, which today charges standard pupils who aren’t on a scholarship £19,761 ($26,569) a year. Lynch was a talented musician in school, and formed a jazz group with five other musicians.

Lynch attended the University of Cambridge where he majored in natural sciences. His interests included biology, math, and electronics. After completing his undergraduate degree, Lynch did a PhD in signals processing and communications.

Lynch started Lynett Systems Ltd. in 1980 after his studies were completed. They produced music products and designed designs. Lynex, a Lynex sampler for Atari ST computers was one of the products. This was followed up by the ADAS Sampler for Atari, Mac and PC.

Lynch started Cambridge Neurodynamics in 1990, a fingerprint recognition company. It was South Yorkshire Police that it served a few years later.

However, his biggest breakthrough was Autonomy. He co-founded it with Richard Gaunt (David Tabizel) in 1996 as an offshoot of Cambridge Neurodynamics.

This company grew into one of the UK’s most important tech businesses. It started with a virtual pet for customers that could be trained to respond to commands and manage information.

The virtual dog — based on Lynch’s otterhound, Gromit — proved to be very popular with businesses, who paid for access to the technology in large numbers. Lynch decided to concentrate on corporations due to the growing availability of consumer goods online. This was a strategic pivot that paid dividends.

Autonomy’s software is made up of pattern matching algorithms. It was marketed as something that employees could use to extract meaning out of a mess of information.

Autonomy began trading on the Easdaq market in Brussels, in 1998. In 2000 Autonomy started listing shares on New York’s Nasdaq stock markets and on the London Stock Exchange.

It was subject to the entire boom-bust cycle of the dotcom bust.