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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 Lost $585 Mil. in 2015, Had Revenue of Just $500,000
AMONG THE BEST-KEPT SECRETS at Theranos during its glory days of 2013, 2014, and 2015—when the news media hailed now-disgraced founder and ex-CEO Elizabeth Holmes as a business genius to match Apple founder Steve Jobs—was the actual revenue the company was generating from its clinic…
In Theranos’ Trial, CLIA Laboratory Director Has a Starring Role
CEO SUMMARY: Most clinical lab directors understand the risks that come with running a CLIA-licensed lab. Such risks are at the forefront of the criminal trial of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of now-defunct Theranos. During the trial, federal prosecutors and defense attorneys question…
Third CLIA Lab Director Testifies in Trial of Elizabeth Holmes
SOMETHING NEW AND UNEXPECTED SEEMS TO POP UP EACH DAY in testimony taken during the federal criminal trial of Elizabeth Holmes, founder and ex-CEO of Theranos, the defunct and discredited clinical laboratory company. Last Thursday, a third indivi…
CLIA Lab Director Testimony Shows Risks to Pathologists
CEO SUMMARY: Elizabeth Holmes’ criminal trial is a case study for clinical lab directors in how not to run a medical lab, according to an attorney with 30 years of advising labs on CLIA-enforcement issues. During the trial, federal prosecutors cited the Clinical Laboratory Improve…
Former Theranos Lab Director Makes News at Elizabeth Holmes Trial
This is an excerpt of a 1,867-word article in the October 18, 2021 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: During the trial, a pathologist who was a former Theranos lab director testified about the little…
Pathologist Makes News at Elizabeth Holmes Trial
CEO SUMMARY: During the trial, a pathologist who formerly was CLIA lab director at Theranos testified about the little regard Theranos executives had for federal proficiency testing regulations labs must follow to retain their CLIA license. Another point of contention was how this p…
September 27, 2021 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
Following the opening of her criminal trial in a Silicon Valley courtroom in recent weeks, Elizabeth Holmes—the disgraced ex-Founder and CEO of Theranos—continues to be the subject of news headlines. Federal prosecutors are calling witnesses to testify. Much of this testimony includes anec…
August 16, 2021 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced ex-CEO of the now-defunct Theranos, continues to be in the news. In the past several weeks, news reports indicate that she gave birth to a child, but whether it is a boy or a girl has not been reported. Also in recent weeks, attorneys have been in court arguing …
Judge Rules in Theranos Case, Elizabeth Holmes Again Is News
Attorneys for former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes and former President Ramesh Balwani are in court maneuvering before the federal case starts the trial phase this summer. Last week, Judge Edward J. Davila ruled that prosecutors from the federal Department of Justice …
December 3, 2018 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News
Another long-established regional laboratory company is about to be acquired. On November 27, Boyce and Bynum Pathology Laboratories of Columbia, Mo., disclosed that it had entered an agreement to be acquired by Quest Diagnostics Inc. Notably, the press release abou…
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