Bizzare is the term, not fraud

Business Insider: The company previously known as HP spent $11 billion to buy software maker Autonomy, only to write off most of that purchase a year later and claim fraud.
On Thursday, Autonomy’s former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was indicted in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on felony fraud charges, reports the Mercury News's Ethan Baron.
He faces up to 20 years in prison. Federal prosecutors are also requesting a judgment against him of at least $7.7 million, Baron reports.

What they bought were three things, software, a sales team, and a customer base.  How does a little due diligence result in a  billion dollar mistake.