What is Theranos
Theranos founder is guilty. Elizabeth is the topic of the famous documentary Out for Blood. It is the story of a charismatic 19-year old dropout who promised the world groundbreaking technology for blood testing. Elizabeth Holmes is the CEO and the Founder of Theranos. It is a Silicon Valley company that works on portable blood testing machines. These machines called Edison have claimed to perform multiple blood tests from a small sample.
At the height of her company, she raised over a total of $900 million capital. Formerly, her wealth was once valued at over $4 billion. The Silicon Valley community treated Elizabeth like a star after she became one of the youngest billionaires.
Allegations
In 2015, an article published by the Wall Street Journal puts in question the technology’s capability. The company’s claims came into question. Next, whistleblowers started to surface saying that the technology did not exist or was not ready for the market. The machine is incapable of producing accurate results and the CEO’s claims are fraudulent.
Elizabeth Holmes along with her former business partner and lover, Sunny Balwani are both facing multiple counts of criminal fraud. Investigations found out that the company’s initial claims and promises to its investors were false.
The jury announced their findings on the 3rd of January 2022 after days of deliberations. They found the Theranos founder and former CEO guilty of 4 out of 11 counts of fraud. The four counts were wire fraud against investors (3 counts) and conspiracy to defraud investors (1 count).
The Verdict
The judge announced that the sentencing will take place after the trial of Sunny Balwani. The trial is set to take place in February of 2022. Elizabeth was found guilty and there is a huge chance that her former partner might be handed down the same results.