Cleared UK tech tycoon feared he would die in US jail if convicted

Mike Lynch uses first interview since acquittal in June of fraud charges to call for overhaul of extradition law

The British tech tycoon Mike Lynch has said he thought he would die in a US jail if he had not been cleared of defrauding Hewlett-Packard over a multibillion-dollar business deal.

In his first interview since his acquittal last month on charges related to the $11.1bn (£8.6bn) purchase of his company Autonomy in 2011, the man once lauded as the UK’s answer to Bill Gates said that his lung condition meant he doubted he would have survived a prison term.