Anyone who has undergone a blood test will know that it can be a long process.
After getting jabbed with a needle in your arm, you’ll have to wait days for your results as it needs to be sent to a lab.
So when Elizabeth Holmes proposed a new method of blood testing that required only a finger prick and promise quick results, investors listened intently and soon flooded her company—Theranos—with millions of dollars.
There was just one problem—there was no such test that could live up to her promise.
Yes, Holmes had duped the world into believing her claims about the supposedly revolutionary technology, and became the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire.
Now, she has to face the consequences of her actions, as it’s certainly going to sting more than a needle.
Elizabeth Holmes, Top Scammer in the US, Has Been Found Guilty by US Jury
After a trial that ran for several months, the 37-year-old has been convicted of defrauding investors.
Holmes was found guilty of conspiring to defraud investors in her blood testing start-up, misleading patients about the tests’ accuracy, as well as defrauding three other investors.
She was found not guilty of four charges relating to defrauding the public. In total, she was convicted of four of her 11 charges, all for fraud and conspiracy.
While it’s likely she’ll get a lower sentence, Holmes could be sentenced to up to 80 years in prison, as each charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
She had earlier pleaded not guilty to nine counts of fraud and two counts of conspiracy.
She maintains that she had never meant to deceive anyone and that it was Theranos’ lab directors who were in charge of the tests’ quality.
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Raised Over $900 Million From Billionaires, Including Rupert Murdoch
At one point, Theranos was valued at US$9bn, thanks to large investments from billionaires such as media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. In total, Holmes is believed to have raised US$900 million for her blood-testing start-up.
Her promise, though simple, excited investors—that a new revolutionary test could detect conditions such as cancer and diabetes with just a few drops of blood from a finger prick, without the need for needles.
But it was later discovered that Theranos had been using conventional machines manufactured by Siemens to run patients’ tests.
Holmes’ deception came to light after the Wall Street Journal published articles that suggested Theranos’ tests were flawed and inaccurate.
Then, in 2018, Holmes was indicted, along with the company’s former CEO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.
So fascinating was this real-life twist that HBO even made a documentary out of it, which is certainly worth a watch.
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