Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the once brilliant startup Theranos, has ended. In court proceedings, this woman was found guilty of several charges related to fraudulent investors and faces a sentence of decades in prison. How's the story?
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 instantly detect medical conditions such as cancer and high cholesterol.
Quoted from CNN, Thursday (6/1/2021) investors also came because they were promised to make big profits. Holmes also became one of the richest women in the United States in 2014, according to Forbes calculations.
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.
To investors, Elizabeth Holmes asked the condition that the technology could not be opened and he would decide anything about the company.
Theranos also operates as if quietly. Holmes has even sued three former Theranos employees for allegedly misusing company secrets. He was inspired by his idol Steve Jobs who was very concerned about confidentiality. Even like Jobs, Holmes started wearing black T-shirts and never took a vacation.
Holmes's name is increasingly recognized, he is widely covered in the media. He often attends prestigious events such as TED Talks where he is on stage with Bill Clinton and Jack Ma. Many outsiders are interested in Theranos. One of them is retail Walgreens which opened a blood test center with Theranos technology.
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.
"I know he had this brilliant idea and he managed to convince all these investors and scientists," said Dr. Jeffrey Flier, former dean of Harvard Medical School, who had lunch with Elizabeth Holmes in 2015.
Holmes also once had a net worth of USD 4.5 billion, making her the youngest richest woman in the world. But at the same time, 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. Therefore, Theranos apparently uses the same machines as other traditional blood test companies, not the technology itself.
"This is what happens when you work to change something. First they think you're crazy, then they fight you and then suddenly you change the world," Holmes defended at the time, regarding the slanderous accusations against him.
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.
