Mike Lynch just won a dramatic 12-year legal battle over his tech company. Weeks later, he and his top lawyer were dead.

• Mike Lynch won an unexpected jury acquittal after a dramatic 12-year legal saga.
• HP accused him of cooking the books of his company, Autonomy, to make it seem worth billions more.
• He finally won — and then he, his lawyer, and his co-defendant all died within days.

In 2011, Mike Lynch was the toast of the tech world.

Hailed as Britain's Bill Gates, Lynch sold Autonomy, his groundbreaking data management company, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.