Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has instructed a court in the U.K. to appoint administrators for the estate of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch as it looks to recover millions of dollars.

The tech giant won $940 million last July after taking action against Lynch’s estate over its botched takeover of British software firm Autonomy. A U.K. High Court judge ordered the estate to pay HPE, with the amount reflecting the difference between the actual price HPE paid for the business and what it would have paid if it had known its true financial state.

Justice Hildyard last month affirmed the ruling, with the amount ballooning to $1.24 billion due to legal costs and interest since the 2011 acquisition.

Bloomberg reports that HPE now wants administrators in place, viewing the late tycoon’s estate to be “insolvent.”

The concept of entering administration is almost like the U.K.’s equivalent to Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. But in the U.S., where existing management usually stays in control of the debt, in the U.K. an external administrator, or an insolvency practitioner, is parachuted in to manage the situation.

Lynch’s widow, Angela Bacares is opposed to the appointment, arguing that “stress and distress” would be put in place on the family from working with administrators unfamiliar with the estate. Bacares wants the estate’s lawyer, Jeremy Sandelson, to hold the administrator’s role, a move HPE’s lawyers argue would constitute a conflict of interest.

Lynch was acquitted of fraud in the U.S. in relation to the takeover in 2022, but a civil case in the U.K. sided with HPE, finding that the company (when it was solely Hewlett Packard (HP) was misled in the lead-up to its acquisition of Autonomy.

Lynch, along with several family members, friends, and one of his lawyers, perished after his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily. Stephen Chamberlain, Lynch's co-defendant and former VP of finance at Autonomy, died hours after the boat sank from being hit by a car while out running.

The yacht was lifted from the seabed only last June, with Italian investigators examining the wreckage.