Elizabeth Holmes has made widespread news because she was finally found guilty of founding a flashy startup that turned out to be a scam, Theranos.
Once the world's youngest billionaire at the age of 19 years (in terms of US dollars), Elizabeth Holmes experienced an extraordinary downfall.
When he was still victorious, he was with his partner, Billy Evans, who was the boss of a hotel chain. Holmes skyrocketed to glory thanks to startup company Theranos dabbling in blood testing. The technology they have does sound impressive, where it is enough to take a small sample of blood, the patient's health condition can be monitored.
In 2014, Theranos became a billion-dollar unicorn startup. Holmes is revered everywhere, being the world's youngest female billionaire. The Theranos startup's business model is to run blood tests with its own technology that requires only a small number of samples. Holmes claims this test can detect medical conditions such as cancer and high cholesterol.
Theranos raised funding from big investors such as Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Larry Ellison. Unmitigated, they collected more than USD 700 million. Conglomerates, from Henry Kissinger to Rupert Murdoch, invested in the company.
US Treasury Secretary George Schultz, Army General James Mattis, and America's richest family, the Waltons, are among their supporters. That endorsement gave Holmes credibility, as did his demeanor.
But in the end, Theranos' rot was exposed and Holmes had to undergo court proceedings. This was when he walked into a San Jose court and was widely covered by the media in the United States.
Billly Evans is always faithful to accompany his wife, whatever the conditions. In court proceedings, this woman was found guilty of several charges related to fraudulent investors and faces a sentence of decades in prison.
Holmes' sluggish face after undergoing trial. At first, great suspicion began to surround Theranos. Ian Gibbons, Theranos' lead scientist, warned Holmes that his blood test was not ready for the public and that there were inaccuracies in the technology. Other scientists began to voice their suspicions on Theranos.
In August 2015, the government agency FDA finally began investigating Theranos. Government regulators later found Theranos' blood tests on patients were inaccurate.
In October 2015, the influential Wall Street Journal published its findings about Theranos which turned out to be of dubious technology. This news triggers the fall of Theranos and Holmes even deeper. John Carreyrou, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, revealed that the Theranos blood test machine, called the Edison, could not give accurate results.
In 2016, the FDA, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the SEC were busy investigating Theranos. They concluded that there had been fraud. So in July 2016, Holmes was banned from working in the laboratory test industry for 2 years. Then in October, Theranos closed its laboratory operations.
In March 2018, Theranos, Holmes and other high-ranking company officials were accused of massive fraud by the SEC. As punishment, Holmes agreed to give up voting and financial control of the company, pay a $500,000 fine and return 18.9 million shares of Theranos.
He was also banned from leading a public company for 10 years. His wealth disappeared. Until now, he was found guilty and almost certainly will receive a heavy sentence.
The husband tries to calm his wife down after a grueling court process.
The career of Elizabeth Holmes and her bogus startup ended, which turned out to be scams. F
