Most famous were the so-called"NatWest Three" - Giles Darby, David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew - who were convicted for wire fraud while working for NatWest and doing business for the crashed US energy trading group Enron.
Mr Bermingham later wrote in The Times:"It is a near statistical certainty that someone extradited to the US will end up guilty, most probably through a plea bargain rather than going to trial, because the criminal justice system in the US is so heavily geared towards this outcome… a toxic combination of political machismo and judges who are political appointees produces a system where few sane people will run the risk of going to trial.
There is also a suspicion that the case against Dr Lynch has been motivated by spite on the part of HP for the way it ended up overpaying for Autonomy. The embarrassment for HP from the Autonomy deal is lasting - not least because, in the City, Dr Lynch was always quite a divisive figure.