The trial centres around the 2011 sale of software company Autonomy to Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), for $11.7bn (£9bn) and allegations of inflated revenue figures, which saw the company heavily overvalued.

If found guilty, Lynch could face up to 20 years in prison on federal fraud charges and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution.

The trial follows Lynch’s extradition from the UK in May 2023.

Lynch, 58, a UK citizen, was charged in a 16-count indictment on 21 March 2019. He made his initial appearance before the US district judge Charles R Breyer in May 2023, who ordered the defendant released to home confinement in San Francisco and a $100m (£78m) bail.

He is accused of being engaged in a scheme to defraud purchasers and sellers of Autonomy securities, including HP, about the true performance of Autonomy’s business, its financial condition, and its prospects for growth.

The charges include artificially inflating Autonomy’s revenues by backdating written agreements to record revenue in prior periods; recorded revenue on contracts impacting revenue recognition; and improperly recorded revenue for reciprocal or roundtrip transactions.

There are also claims that Lynch and his vice president of finance Stephen Chamberlain made false and misleading statements to Autonomy’s independent auditor, Deloitte, about transactions allegedly supporting the recognition of revenue and other items in Autonomy’s financial statements.

In September 2020, Deloitte was fined £15m and severely reprimanded by the UK audit regulator, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), for ‘serious and serial failures’ in its auditing of Autonomy, including ‘numerous’ examples of misconduct and a lack of professional scepticism

The trial starts on 18 March and the trial is expected to last at least 10 weeks.

In May 2019, the former CFO of Autonomy, Sushovan Hussain, was given a five-year prison sentence and $4m (£3m) fine, plus $6.1m in forfeiture, by a US court for wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy counts.