Accusations by Hewlett-Packard Co. that it was deceived about the valuation of British software company Autonomy Corp. PLC will finally have their day in court.

Former Autonomy Chief Financial Officer Sushovan Hussain was indicted by a San Francisco court on Thursday. Federal prosecutors, according to Mercury News, charged that Hussain, “together with others, engaged in a fraudulent scheme to deceive purchasers and sellers of Autonomy securities and HP about the true performance of Autonomy’s business, its financial condition, and its prospects for growth.”

More specifically, federal prosecutors allege that Hussain and other unnamed executives “artificially inflated revenues, made false and misleading statements about Autonomy’s finances, put fraudulent entries into the company’s books, issued false and misleading quarterly and annual reports, and intimidated, pressured and paid off people who had raised complaints or criticized the firm’s financial practices and performance.”

HP paid $10.7 billion to acquire Autonomy in the summer of 2011 in a gambit to transform itself into more of a software company. But it was criticized immediately for what some investors thought was too high a price.

Just over a year later, HP was forced to write down its value by a whopping $8.8 billion after Autonomy missed its expected numbers by 90 percent. That prompted HP Chief Executive Meg Whitman to accuse Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch of committing fraud in his accounting practices. By December 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Securities Exchange Commission, as well as Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, were running an official investigation into the matter.

HP itself had been targeted over the acquisition, too. It paid $100 million to settle a suit filed by shareholders who sued for damages to HP’s share price. It also is also being sued by Lynch for $150 million who claims that the accusation that Autonomy had fiddled the books in simply not true. Of note, that suit is a counter suit to one lodged by HP seeking damages from both Lynch and Hussain.

While the indictment against Hussain will no doubt be welcomed by HP, the company seems set in moving on from the experience and as of July was looking at selling Autonomy. It’s not clear how far along the road HPE is to selling the unit, or whether it even will proceed with a sale.

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