Software financial chief sentenced to 5 years for fraud in $11B deal

A former executive at Autonomy Corp. was sentenced Monday to five years in federal prison on a conviction of defrauding Hewlett-Packard Co. during the $11.7 billion acquisition of software company Autonomy.

For more than two years prior to the 2011 acquisition, Chief Financial Officer Sushovan Hussain, 55, used backdated contracts, round trips and channel stuffing to spike the company's revenue to make it appear as though it was growing when it really was not, according to Department of Justice prosecutors.

Autonomy's sales were inflated by $53.3 million in 2009, $99.08 billion in 2010, $20.09 million in the first quarter of 2011 and $20.85 million in the second quarter of 2011, prosecutors said. Hussain, a British citizen, and his co-conspirators were also accused of hiding the scale of Autonomy's hardware sales from market analysts and investors.

Hussain was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2016. He was convicted in April 2018 on one count of conspiracy, 14 counts of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud. U.S. v. Hussain, 3:16-CR-00462, (N.D. Cal., filed Dec. 21, 2016).

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer ordered Hussain to pay $4 million in fines and to forfeit his assets in the amount of $6.1 million.

Assistant U.S. attorneys Robert S. Leach, Adam A. Reeves and William Frentzen prosecuted the case with the assistance of Elizabeth Margen, Phillip Villanueva and Bridget Kilkenny.

John W. Keker of Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP represented Hussain. The Keker team could not be reached for comment Monday.