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Elizabeth Holmes
Elizabeth Holmes is the convicted former CEO at Theranos, a now-defunct blood test company.
Holmes was a charming and charismatic leader, poised to change the world of clinical laboratory testing. Her legacy, however, will instead be one of enamoring well-recognized investors with her personality while the technology behind her company ultimately proved lacking.
Her downfall was stunning. In 2014, Holmes was reported to have 18 U.S. patents and 66 non-U.S. patents in her name, and she was listed as a co-inventor on more than 100 patent applications. She was the youngest self-made female billionaire on the 2014 Forbes 400 list, with an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion. Yet by early 2016, Forbes updated her net worth to zero.
She founded Theranos in 2003 at age 19 while she was a chemical engineering major at Stanford University. She subsequently dropped out of Stanford as a sophomore to focus on her startup.
Theranos’ technology was based on her invention and patent for a way to run 30 common clinical laboratory tests on blood obtained via a fingerstick using microfluidics technology – a much faster and cheaper method than traditional lab testing techniques.
By 2014, the company offered 200 tests, was licensed to operate in every state in the U.S., and was valued at nearly $10 billion.
While some observers predicted Holmes’s innovations would dominate the clinical lab test market, an in-depth investigative report by The Wall Street Journal in October 2015 revealed aspects of Theranos that the secretive company has kept from public view. This reporting started the chain of events that would lead to Theranos’s downfall.
As a result of regulator scrutiny, in July 2016, the Medicare program handed down stringent sanctions to Theranos for problems at the company’s lab, including a two-year prohibition on Holmes owning any CLIA-certified laboratory.
Then, in March 2018, the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges that focused on Theranos and Holmes allegedly raising more than $700 million from investors by exaggerating or making false statements about the company’s technology and financial performance.
To settle the SEC’s charges, Holmes agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and surrender almost 19 million shares of Theranos stock and voting control of the company, the SEC said. Also, she was barred from running a public company for 10 years. At the time, Holmes did not admit to nor deny the charges.
Later in 2018, the federal prosecutors charged Holmes on various counts of conspiracy and wire fraud charges. Following the indictments, Holmes stepped down as CEO. Theranos dissolved in September 2018.
Holmes went on trial in fall 2021 after multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and her pregnancy. On January 3, 2022, she was found guilty on three counts of defrauding investors and one count of wire fraud. She is scheduled to be sentenced in September 2022.
Theranos News Gets Worse for the Former Silicon Valley Hero
CEO SUMMARY: In a tale of two fraudsters, the Department of Justice has filed a warning shot to all technology startups: Criminal indictments against Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani could mean prison time and massive fines. In this latest Theranos news, The DOJ ci…
Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes Prepares to Meet Justice
IT’S NOW CLEAR THAT TWO CLINICAL LABORATORY EXECUTIVES COMMITED one of the largest corporate fraud schemes in the past century. Reading the federal indictments against Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani unsealed Friday provides insights into the extensive scale and wide scope of the a…
Holmes, Balwani Indicted by Department of Justice
CEO SUMMARY: Federal criminal indictments were unsealed last Friday in San Francisco against Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani for their actions as executives at Theranos, Inc., the once high-flying lab test company. Officials at the Department of Justice said the counts aga…
How Many Patients Were Harmed at Theranos?
CEO SUMMARY: Reporting in The Wall Street Journal shows that some physicians in Arizona were concerned about the harm from erroneous test results from Theranos Inc. But those physicians who expressed concern may have been only a small set of the …
WSJ Reporter Tells All About Downfall of Troubled Theranos
CEO SUMMARY: While Theranos was a darling of the business and national media, Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou was hearing troubling reports about patients who got incongruent lab results that put them at risk for inappropriate medical…
SEC Charges Theranos with ‘Massive Fraud’
CEO SUMMARY: In an action against Theranos and two of its executives, the SEC said in a federal court filing this month that the company, CEO Elizabeth Holmes, and former COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani deceived investors into believing that the company’s portable blood analyzer could co…
April 3, 2017 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News
For readers with a continuing interest in Theranos, the latest development at the troubled lab testing company involves an offer by Founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, to its current shareholders. Various news outlets report that, for existing shareholders who agree not to sue Therano…
Theranos Lays Off More Staff, Voids More Lab Test Results
ONCE AGAIN, the controversial lab testing company, Theranos, Inc., found itself the subject of negative news stories. In recent weeks, The Wall Street Journal reported that the beleaguered lab testing company in Palo Alto, Calif., laid off 155 staffers, voided more laboratory test results, a…
Much Disruption for Labs In 2016’s Top 10 Stories
CEO SUMMARY: Within THE DARK REPORT’S list of the Top 10 Lab Industry Stories for 2016 is one story of disruption that might have been one story of disruption about to happen. The disintegration of Theranos during 2016 is the big story about a self-proclaimed disruptor of the lab indust…
Theranos Ends Patient Testing, Sued for Deceiving Investors
IN THE EARLY 1960S, the great bluesman Albert King wrote, “Born Under a Bad Sign,” which contained the unforgettable lyric, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.” That lyric almost describes what’s happened to Theranos Inc. since October 2015. Al…
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