Autonomy founder Mike Lynch says he has obtained a Hewlett-Packard document that shows how differences in accounting standards, not fraud on Autonomy’s part, are to blame for the debacle surrounding HP’s acquisition of the company.

HP purchased Autonomy for US$11.1 billion in 2011. A year later HP announced an $8.8 billion write-down and attributed $5.5 billion of that loss to accounting fraud at Autonomy before the sale.

Lynch made the claim about accounting standards Tuesday in a blog post, saying the revenue information in the document showed that Autonomy properly documented its sales. Some of the accusations around the merger’s fallout include claims that Autonomy reclassified low-margin hardware sales as high-volume software sales to inflate revenue. Lynch has denied that charge.

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