Photo: Lisa Lake / Getty Images
Elizabeth Holmes is a young entrepreneur who captivated Silicon Valley through the creation of her company.
He dropped out of his studies at Stanford to create an innovative blood analysis system, which attracted high-end investors level.
His fame became so great that his image appeared on magazine covers and was even told that he would become the next Steve Jobs.
Theranos, the biotech company, promised a revolutionary system for analyzing blood . Only one drop was needed to perform an analysis that cost a fraction of what a full study costs.
The company was valued at $ 9, 000 million dollars and managed to secure contracts with the Department of Defense and Walgreens, according to documents that have become public.
The fame of Holmes had a meteoric rise, however, it was stopped after a series of investigations carried out by the newspaper The Wall Street Journal .
The story has inspired an HBO documentary, a book and a podcast, a series on Hulu and even a movie .
Now Holmes and Ramesh Balwani face criminal charges and could meet up to 20 years in prison if convicted . Balwani and Holmes had a secret romantic relationship from investors and board members and employees for years.
Both Holmes from 37 as Balwani, from 56 years, are charged with two counts of conspiracy and with wire fraud charges . The accusation that was filed in the District Attorney for the Northern District of California.
The couple assured investors that Theranos technology could provide blood tests through fast, accurate, reliable and cheap accurate results when they knew that their technology was not capable of do it , according to prosecutors.
Both have pleaded not guilty and have released pending trial.
It has been three years since Holmes was charged and the trial has been delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic and her pregnancy .
Nevertheless, the trial began this Tuesday 31 of August and you are expected to declare them Opening proceedings will begin on September 8.
Balwani’s trial is scheduled for January 2022.
Who is Elizabeth Holmes?
Elizabeth Holmes grew up in Washington, DC, and was an outstanding student throughout high school. Dropped out of Stanford University in 2004 with only 19 years to found what would become Theranos .
It was originally said that the early death from cancer of one of her uncles inspired her to create the Theranos analysis system, however , that part was disproved by the investigations.
The Theranos system was intended to convert the blood test on something as common as diet or exercise .
Holmes , which now has 37 years, was called by Forbes in 2015 as the most billionaire woman young man having a net worth of $ 4, 500 million dollars at the age of 31 years.
Theranos
During the first 10 years Theranos was based in Palo Alto, while developing its technology that promised that just one drop of blood was enough to perform a complex analysis at a fraction of the cost of existing technology.
Some of the big investors in the firm were Betsy DeVos, who was President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education, Sam Walton of Walmart and Rupert Murdoch of News Corp .
What happened in Theranos?
The doubts about the Theranos company arose in 2015 when the Wall Street Journal reported that the company’s key product only handled a small fraction of the 240 blood test that advertised. Actually, Theranos used traditional technology to perform most of the patient tests .
That year an employee who was George Shultz’s grandson, who was part of the board of directors leaked the information and reported Theranos to the New York State Public Health Laboratory which became the first complaint against the company.
The FDA had only approved one of its tests while Walgreens ended a partnership it had with Theranos and closed the 40 testing centers that he had installed within the branches in the states of California and Arizona .
The Securities Commission filed civil charges for securities fraud against Holmes in 2018 but reached an agreement and paid a fee of $ 500, 000 Dollars. In 2018 Theranos was disbanded when the Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against Holmes and Balwani.