Elizabeth Holmes, the founder, and CEO of disgraced blood-testing company Theranos, has been found guilty on three counts of wire fraud, as well as a count of conspiracy to commit fraud along with her co-founder Sunny Balwani. On November 18th, she was sentenced to 135 months, or about 11 and a half years, in prison for defrauding 10 victims out of $121 million.
Theranos was valued as high as $9 billion, and Holmes was a darling of Silicon Valley, sporting black turtlenecks that prompted comparisons to Steve Jobs.
Until John Carreyrou’s exposé was published in The Wall Street Journal. In that article, Carreyrou wrote that Theranos was using its own device for only a handful of tests and that other employees were concerned that the device wasn’t accurate.
Then it came out that Theranos’ labs weren’t up to par and its partnerships with Safeway and Walgreens fell apart. Also, Theranos junked two years’ worth of test results. Eventually, Holmes was banned from operating labs, and Theranos dissolved in 2018.
Jan 10
The judge who sentenced Elizabeth Holmes explains the reasoning behind his decision.In November, Judge Edward Davila sentenced Theranos co-founder Elizabeth Holmes to 135 months, or just over 11 years, in prison for defrauding investors.
NPR reporter Bobby Allyn points out that he’s issued his full order explaining the decision (PDF), noting that Holmes was sentenced based on only about 10 percent of the money Theranos actually raised.
@BobbyAllyn[Twitter]
Dec 7, 2022
Former Theranos executive Sunny Balwani is sentenced to almost 13 years in prison
The former Theranos president and COO was convicted of misleading both investors and patients.
Nov 18, 2022
Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to over 11 years in prison
The founder and former CEO of Theranos will be spending time behind bars for defrauding investors.
Nov 8, 2022
Elizabeth Holmes's bid for a retrial has been denied.As reported by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, the Theranos co-founder’s sentencing is now scheduled for November 18th.
Holmes was found guilty on three counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. Each count carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Jan 7, 2022
Is Elizabeth Holmes’ guilty verdict a wake-up call for startups?
Or will the ‘fake it till you make it’ mindset persist?
Jan 5, 2022
Elizabeth Holmes’ verdict won’t change Silicon Valley
The market’s only gotten weirder since Theranos
Jan 4, 2022
Elizabeth Holmes found guilty of defrauding investors
The jury found she didn’t conspire to defraud patients, though
Dec 30, 2021
Why Theranos failed, but other researchers might not
Reasonable research teams are working to do more with smaller volumes of blood.
Dec 18, 2021
The story of Elizabeth Holmes now belongs to the jury
They’ll decide whether or not she was the one in control
Dec 1, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes admits that she was CEO of Theranos, the company she founded
‘The buck stops with you?’
Nov 30, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes says Theranos’ former president abused her
“I have molded you,” Sunny Balwani texted
Nov 24, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes admitted to a key part of the case against her
Holmes confesses to a passion for graphic design
Nov 22, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes tells the jury that at least some of Theranos was real
“A success was that we had successfully achieved the objectives of the program.”
Nov 20, 2021
In her Theranos fraud case, Elizabeth Holmes is speaking for herself
From birth to the year 2006 in her first day of testimony
Nov 15, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes will take your $1.2 million but not your phone calls
We met an investor who won’t take a hint — or even a command
Nov 10, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes hired a bunch of experts so she could ignore them
It seems like the doctors were just at Theranos for show
Nov 3, 2021
Happy Halloween! Theranos showed up in a Pfizer costume
With a logo on a memo and a little bit of language trickery, Theranos snookered rich investors
Oct 27, 2021
Theranos FOMO kept the DeVos family from doing its investment homework
The family office took Elizabeth Holmes at her word
Oct 1, 2021
Delaying Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos fraud trial is paying off for the defense
‘Do I have an independent recollection of when I sent this email from seven years ago?’
Sep 30, 2021
A grueling day in Elizabeth Holmes’ trial ended with evidence that Theranos’ tests sucked
A preview of arguments to come
Sep 29, 2021
Was Elizabeth Holmes like Steve Jobs? Her emails say no
A Steve Jobs biography makes an appearance in court — but it doesn’t explain Theranos’ problems
Sep 25, 2021
How Elizabeth Holmes sidelined the real scientists at Theranos
By leaving them off email threads
Sep 23, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes ‘was in charge’ of Theranos, says Gen. Mattis
She pricked his finger, and he fell under her spell
Sep 22, 2021
The first patient testimony about a Theranos test result: a miscarriage that wasn’t
‘You can’t provide accurate patient care with inaccurate results.’
Sep 16, 2021
How do you cross-examine a whistleblower?
Theranos lab assistant-turned-whistleblower Erika Cheung testifies in the Elizabeth Holmes wire fraud trial
Sep 15, 2021
The Holmes trial gets into the Excel nitty-gritty
But will the technical jargon overwhelm the jurors?
Sep 8, 2021
Fraud, or just a failure? Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’s trial opening arguments
Who is Elizabeth Holmes, really?
Sep 8, 2021
Theranos’ greatest invention was Elizabeth Holmes
Holmes was where the girlboss met Silicon Valley founder worship