Autonomy’s Lynch Created Appearance of New Deals, Executive Says

The former head of Autonomy Corp.’s U.S. business described an “unsustainable” spiral of ever-increasing targets at the software firm as he linked founder Mike Lynch with the company’s attempts to inflate sales.

Christopher Egan, a key witness in the U.S. government’s criminal case against Autonomy’s former management, told a London court that Lynch was among those who generated email traffic to “create the appearance” that contracts were genuine. Egan admitted to wrongdoing in exchange for a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. has accused Lynch of being the architect of a massive accounting fraud at ...