Autonomy Corp.'s former CFO pleaded not guilty to charges heschemed to inflate the price of his company's $11 billion takeoverby Hewlett-Packard Co. as the U.S. continues its investigation.

After Sushovan Hussain entered his plea Thursday, the SanFrancisco federal judge overseeing the case said he wants to movetoward a trial without delay. The executive traveled voluntarilyfrom England for Thursday's hearing and his lawyer has said he'seager to prove his innocence.

Prosecutors charged Hussain in November, five years afterHewlett-Packard admitted that its 2011 acquisition of Autonomy wasa bust. He and Autonomy co-founder Michael Lynch face a lawsuit byHewlett-Packard in a London court seeking $5.1 billion overallegations they made false claims about Autonomy's performance andfinancial condition to boost the company's value. Lynch wasn'tcharged in the December indictment.

Prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday that they're stillinvestigating other unidentified people in the case. U.S. DistrictJudge Charles Breyer said Thursday he won't allow the continuingprobe to delay Hussain's case and ordered lawyers to return tocourt May 10 to set a trial date.

“I don't intend that aspect to delay this aspect of it,” Breyersaid. The judge, who handled a shareholder lawsuit over relatedissues that settled in 2015, said the legal fallout from the mergerhas taken unexpected twists. “It goes in directions that I'm notsure I would've anticipated.”

Tim Crudo, a former federal prosecutor turned defense lawyer,said Hussain's not guilty plea was expected. Any deal he might haveworked out to cooperate with the government and testify againstLynch would have required a guilty plea and probably would havebeen negotiated before he was indicted, Crudo said.

'Scrubbing This'

“The government has been scrubbing this thing for a long time,”Crudo said. “I'm sure there have been discussions. Had they beenable to work out a deal, they would've done it.”

Crudo said prosecutors probably had to reach an agreement withHussain for him to waive a deadline for bringing charges withinfive years of the alleged offense. Unless the government can allegethat some conduct occurred within that time period, it would behard-pressed to pursue a case against Lynch and other Autonomyexecutives unless they, too, have privately consented that it's nottoo late to prosecute them under the statute of limitations, hesaid.

Hussain's lawyer, John Keker, declined to comment afterThursday's hearing. He previously said it was a “shame” the U.S.Justice Department was doing Hewlett-Packard's bidding by charginghim. Keker told the judge in December he expected the case againstHussain to go to trial.

Assistant U.S. attorneys Robert S. Leach and Adam A. Reeves alsodeclined to comment after the hearing.

After he was indicted, Hussain agreed to post bail of $1,000 andhas been allowed to stay at home in England and travel so long ashe doesn't visit a country that doesn't have an extradition treatywith the U.S.

Hussain is still working with Lynch, who runs a Europe-focused$1 billion venture capital firm, Invoke Capital, that invests intech startups and also helps set up and manage them.

Insufficient Evidence

The U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office has said there was insufficientevidence for a prosecution of Autonomy officials. In the U.S.,Christopher Egan, the former chief executive officer of Autonomy'sU.S.-based subsidiary in San Francisco, agreed in November to pay$923,000 to settle an administrative proceeding in which theSecurities and Exchange Commission accused him of participating inan accounting scheme. Egan, who left the company in November 2012,didn't admit or deny the regulator's findings.

Hewlett-Packard's acquisition of Autonomy came before a split ofthe company in 2015 that created Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.,which focuses on technology for data centers, and HP Inc., whichsells computers and printers.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has since been looking to shed otherassets. The company last year announced it was spinning off andmerging some non-core software assets in a multibillion-dollar dealwith U.K.-based Micro Focus International Plc. As part of thatdeal, Micro Focus will be picking up pieces of Autonomy.

This case is U.S. v. Hussain, 16-cr-00462, U.S. District Court,Northern District of California (San Francisco).

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