Jeaña Mikaela L.

Samonte
AC181

FORMER CFO OF AUTONOMY GUILTY OF ACCOUNTING FRAUD

Sushovan Hussain was the former chief financial officer of Autonomy. Last 1 st of May
2018, an article regarding an accounting fraud was published on irishtimes.com saying that the
CFO, Hussain was found guilty in doing the fraud. Autonomy, which is now called HP Autonomy,
is a software company in U.K. Their company was founded during the year 1996, on the month
of June. The founders are Michael Richard Lynch, David Tabizel, and Richard Gaunt. Autonomy
was known as the second-largest software in the United Kingdom after Hewlett-Packard acquired
it in 2011. The case started when Hussain, together with ‘others’ deceived the company’s
investors and HP about the financial condition of the company for continuous development and
growth. That unethical act of Hussain was suspected by Hewlett-Packard and wrote down its
value by $8.8 billion saying that a fraud by the company was made. He then asked the U.S. Justice
Department to investigate the case. It was then founded guilty and a win for the verdict after
incurring some repetitive losses. They then partially vindicated Hewlett-Packard. They said that
the illegal act of Hussain was about an accounting fraud arriving at a 10.3-billion-dollar price that
Hewlett-Packard paid six years ago for the UK software. Hussain’s unethical acts, said by the
federal prosecutors was brought up by them saying that since 2009 until 2016, Hussain was
already suspected on criminal conspiracy and wire fraud. But during the trial located in San
Francisco, Hussain was pleading not guilty. Hussain’s lawyer, Keker said that he (Hussain), did not
deceived anyone. Keker said that Hussain was always in the high standards of honesty, integrity
and competence. Keker also added that: “It is a shame that the United States Department of
Justice lent its support to HP’s campaign to blame others for its own catastrophic failings.” The
jury then convicted Hussain totaling to 16 counts of wire and securities fraud after three (3) days
of deliberations by the federal court in San Francisco. Before the case, it was said that the deal
was only meant to progress the HP’s move on its central part but instead was written-off three-
quarters of the company’s value. The statement of the company regarding Hussain’s fraud was:
“Mr. Hussain attempted to depict the fraud as nothing more than a misunderstanding of
international accounting rules was, and still remains, patently ridiculous.” After the case, Hussain
was found guilty and must face 25 years in prison for securities fraud, wherein it is the most
serious offense one could get. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, that was previously called as Hewlett-
Packard’s corporate computing divisions and known for its printer and PC business was pleased
with the verdict.
 My reaction to this fraudulent case is disappointed and happy. As an accountancy student
here in Asia Pacific College, I must abide with the 3Is in this school namely: Industry, Innovation,
and Integrity. I believe that some schools and universities are also familiar with the word
“Integrity.” That value must be learned as we age and grow. After learning the case about HP
Autonomy, I was a bit saddened to what Hussain did. He cheated the financial stability and
information of the company which is not good if you are an accountant. He cheated it so that the
company would do more good. But he instead failed to do it. Because he did a serious crime
which was 16 wire counts and securities fraud by the way. I have learned that in order to have a
successful business in the future, credibility and completeness must be there. In our accounting
class, these values are already taught to us starting to the recording of the entries up to the
making of a financial statement. If you are not literate enough to get hold and to live by those
values, you must not consider yourself as an accountant. That serves same to Hussain who
committed multiple crimes which is very illegal because the money and the company’s stability
at the moment is not a joke. The reputation of the company was involved by Hussain’s criminal
acts. I feel disappointed because it would do no good to the eyes of the people who look up to
the executives. It is a shame to the media to tell the world out there that one of your employees
is doing a fraud and deceiving many people including the owners. Hussain might have been
pleading not guilty but it is the evidences that proved him guilty. I was disappointed too to the
fact that the case got a little longer because it has been recognized since 2009 already and the
officials did not even investigated Hussain furtherly. It took them almost 8 years to solve the
crime that the former CFO did. I was also a bit happy on the fact that Hussain got arrested even
though the tried to plead himself guilty through his lawyer. I was happy because the justice
system in the U.S. was justifiable and was according to their constitutions and laws. I hope that
when it comes to this manner, the people would now be more cautious to the person who
surrounds them. I am not saying that we should suspect each of those who are surrounding us,
but we should at least be more analytical on what people do on their time. Also, to prevent these
things from happening, we must be more careful on who are we going to hire and fire. We must
also give extra care to the people who surrounds us because sometimes, the bad things are not
planned, it is unintentional. Some may be mad at their boss, or may be treated unfairly by their
bosses. We should be more extra vigilant and be more careful with the things we say so that the
people around us would be more relaxed around us that could prevent them from doing
unintentionally illegal frauds. The case should be promoted to many people out there so that
they would be literate enough to know what’s going on.
References:

https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Hewlett-Packard-HP
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/30/autonomy_cfo_sushovan_hussain_guilty/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-30/former-autonomy-executive-hussain-
convicted-of-accounting-fraud
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/former-cfo-of-autonomy-guilty-of-
accounting-fraud-1.3480161