Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes convicted of fraud

Elizabeth Holmes has been convicted of defrauding investors after a month-long landmark trial in California.

Prosecutors said Holmes knowingly lied about technology she said could detect diseases with a few drops of blood.

 

Although the Theranos founder denied the charges which carry a maximum prison term of 20 years each, Jurors found Holmes guilty of four charges, including conspiracy to commit fraud against investors and three counts of wire fraud.

 

Holmes was not taken into custody, with no date confirmed yet for sentencing after she faced 11 charges in total and was found not guilty of four charges relating to defrauding the public.

Theranos, at one point valued at $9bn ( £6.5bn) was once the darling of Silicon Valley, after the firm promised it would revolutionise the healthcare industry, but its claims began to unravel in 2015 after a Wall Street Journal investigation reported that its core blood-testing technology did not work.

The prosecution called 30 witnesses, sought to prove that Holmes knew the product she was selling to investor was a sham, but remained hell-bent on the firm’s success.

 

Multiple lab directors testified that they told Holmes about the flaws in Theranos’ technology but were instructed to downplay their concerns. While testifying in her own defence, Holmes acknowledged mistakes in Theranos’ operation but maintained she never knowingly defrauded patient or investors. The defence also laid blame on Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, Holmes’ former business partner and long-term boyfriend 19-yeers her senior, of emotional and sexual abuse. Sunny Balwani, will now face trial next week in the same court for similar charges.

The verdict sends a clear and frank message to Silicon Valley founders  that there are consequences when you say things to investors that aren’t true.