Washington [US], January 4 (ANI): The verdict is in on former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes‘ fraud case. She has been convicted on four counts of fraud and conspiracy, ending a lengthy trial that has captivated Silicon Valley.
As per People magazine, a federal jury in California found Holmes guilty of fraud and conspiracy on Monday. Holmes, who is the subject of an HBO documentary as well as a forthcoming Hulu series starring actor Amanda Seyfried, had been charged with 11 counts of fraud for claims made to investors and patients of her Silicon Valley blood-testing company, Theranos.
The jury handed down a partial verdict on Monday, finding Holmes guilty of four of the 11 charges – three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Holmes was found not guilty of an additional four. However, the jury remained deadlocked on the other three counts.
Holmes now faces a federal prison sentence of up to 20 years. Her sentencing will come at a later date. The federal government also must decide whether to retry Holmes for the three counts on which the jury could not reach a verdict, reported People magazine.
Holmes first rose to prominence in 2014 as the founder and CEO of healthcare start-up Theranos, which duped investors out of millions by falsely purporting that its technology could run hundreds of medical tests using a few drops of blood.
However, in 2015, a leading media publication reported that the machine Holmes was selling, dubbed The Edison, did not actually work and that the company was using outside technology and other subterfuge to fake positive test results. Federal authorities then investigated Holmes, indicting her in 2018.
During her trial, Holmes’ attorneys portrayed her as naive, saying she didn’t mean to defraud investors. According to ABC, Holmes’ attorney Kevin Downey said Holmes never cashed out any stock even as the company’s fortunes tumbled.
In addition to accusations that she misled patients and physicians about the efficacy of Theranos’ blood tests, Holmes was also accused of lying to investors in 2015, telling them that Theranos would generate USD 1 billion in revenue when she allegedly knew the company would only generate a few hundred thousand dollars that year. Born in Washington, DC, to an Enron executive father and a mother who worked as a staff member on a congressional committee, Holmes spent the majority of her youth in Houston, Texas.
Holmes studied chemical engineering at Stanford University, but never earned a degree, dropping out in 2003 to launch Theranos. Holmes, who’d always feared needles and hated having her blood drawn, sought to revolutionize the healthcare industry by developing a method of comprehensive testing from just a small amount of blood instead of several vials.
Theranos investors included National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Holmes testified in her own defense, saying her judgment was clouded during the time in question because of the alleged sexual, psychological and emotional abuse she endured during her relationship with former Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her ex-boyfriend and co-defendant. Balwani faces the same fraud and conspiracy charges Holmes faced but will be tried separately in January. (ANI)
