Ex-Autonomy CFO Sushovan Hussain Gets 5 Years for $100M Fraud

SAN FRANCISCO — Sushovan Hussain, the former Chief Financial Officer of Autonomy Corporation plc, has been sentenced to sixty (60) months in federal prison after a jury convicted him of orchestrating a massive accounting fraud that duped Hewlett-Packard into a catastrophic $11.7 billion acquisition. The 55-year-old UK national, once a high-flying executive at the dual-headquartered software firm, now faces hard time for one count of conspiracy, fourteen counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.

The sentence, handed down by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer, includes a $4 million fine, forfeiture of $6.1 million in assets, three years of supervised release, and a special assessment of $1,600. Hussain was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on June 15, 2019. The judgment marks a rare criminal conviction in a case that stunned the tech and finance worlds.

From 2009 through mid-2011, Hussain manipulated Autonomy’s financials using backdated contracts, roundtrip transactions, and channel stuffing—industry tactics meant to create the illusion of growth. The fraud inflated Autonomy’s reported revenues by 14.6% in 2009, 17.9% in 2010, 21.5% in Q1 2011, and 12.4% in Q2 2011. Total sales were falsely boosted by $53.3 million in 2009, $99.08 million in 2010, $20.09 million in Q1 2011, and $20.85 million in Q2 2011.

The scheme’s target was Hewlett-Packard. In 2011, HP bought Autonomy based on these falsified numbers, only to write down over $8 billion just a year later when the fraud unraveled. Investigators proved Hussain and his co-conspirators concealed the extent of Autonomy’s hardware sales—low-margin deals used solely to inflate revenue—and misrepresented the company’s software-driven profitability.

Hussain was indicted on November 10, 2016, on charges of conspiracy and 14 counts of wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1349 and § 1343. On May 4, 2017, a superseding indictment added a count of securities fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1348. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert S. Leach, Adam A. Reeves, and William Frentzen, with support from Elizabeth Margen, Phillip Villanueva, and Bridget Kilkenny.

The investigation was conducted jointly by the FBI and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson and FBI Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett confirmed the outcome, emphasizing that corporate executives who manipulate financial markets will face federal prison time. The verdict serves as a warning to boardrooms: fraud on this scale doesn’t just collapse companies—it lands perpetrators behind bars.

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