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Her platinum-dyed hair is now a softer baby blonde, laid out in a natural wave. The red power lipstick has disappeared in favor of a nude with a fresh face.
The message he sent was clear: Arriving in court this week for the Silicon Valley “Trial of the Century” was a very different Elizabeth Holmes.
The fascinating 37-year-old, once nicknamed “the Steve Jobs woman”, has seen her searing star drop quickly since she became involved in one of the most extraordinary sagas of pride, ambition and deception that the tech world has ever known.
Once celebrated as a paragon of the ‘disruptive magic’ of tech culture, the Stanford University drop-out was destined to make history after creating a blood testing company that had the potential to revolutionize healthcare. global health.
Elizabeth Holmes leaves court in San Jose, California. She is accused of fraud and theft to the tune of $ 700 million, apparently killing wealthy investors, patients and the entire scientific community by flogging technology that, in the end, simply does not. not worked.
In 2013, Holmes won a multi-million dollar contract with US drugstore chain Walgreens to perform in-store blood tests for customers. Yet it turned out that only 15 of the 240 tests offered by Theranos were performed on the machines. “It was little more than a junk box,” said a former colleague. (Above, Holmes in court on September 8)
Along the way, she has become an icon for millions of women, an example of women’s empowerment.
As the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, she’s proven that you can stay feminine and desirable while still kicking yourself in the boardroom.
But the bubble of self-confidence has indeed burst.
Holmes is accused of fraud and theft to the tune of $ 700 million, apparently catching the attention of wealthy investors, patients and the entire scientific community by flogging technology that ultimately , just didn’t work.
The circus atmosphere on Wednesday at the San Jose courthouse in California, where the trial will take place over the next 13 weeks, was almost appropriate given the circumstances.
In 2003, at the age of 19, Holmes gave up his chemical engineering degree to found Theranos. Holmes, with a phobia of needles, had designed what appeared to be promising new technology – a black box that could perform hundreds of blood tests to identify health problems using a single sample of blood taken per needle. on your finger.
For the big question at the heart of it all remains: Is Holmes a con artist, or simply – as her newly reserved demeanor might have you believe – a deluded victim who believed her own hype?
A source, who met Holmes regularly as she was congratulated at scintillating awards ceremonies and feted as a cover girl for prestigious publications like Forbes magazine, told the Mail on Sunday night: “People wanted to believe in it. There are tens of thousands of failing startups for every successful Apple, Google, Facebook, or Tesla.
“Everyone exaggerates to some extent. When you first met Elizabeth, you had no doubts that she believed in her own genius.
“She was young and beautiful, but she was also smart and had a seemingly brilliant idea that turned her start-up into a $ 9 billion business.
“She was living the dream.
But those who have exposed the sham at its center interpret the fairy tale much more darkly. Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, who wrote the bestseller Bad Blood about her investigation of the case, said, “I think she absolutely has sociopathic tendencies. One of these trends is pathological lying.
Whatever the truth, she will now be probed in Holmes’ highly anticipated trial.
She remained unmoved as the prosecutor read 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud that could lead to her spending the next 20 years in prison, if convicted.
The central argument of prosecutors is that Holmes knew it was a scam. “She lied and cheated to make billions,” US Attorney Robert Leach told court.
His defense attorney, Lance Wade, insists the opposite is true. Holmes, he says, is guilty of nothing more than being an ambitious, perhaps naive young woman who is committed to “changing the world.” So what is it ?
In 2003, at the age of 19, Holmes gave up his chemical engineering degree to found Theranos.
Holmes, with a phobia of needles, had designed what appeared to be promising new technology – a black box that could perform hundreds of blood tests to identify health problems using a single sample of blood taken per needle. on your finger.
By the time Holmes became the world’s youngest female billionaire, aged 31, in 2015, she had charmed some of the most powerful and influential men on the planet.
Two former U.S. Secretaries of State, Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, invested in Theranos and served on the board.
Holmes’ defense attorney Lance Wade says she is only guilty of being an ambitious, perhaps naive young woman who set out to ‘change the world’
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch was so enthralled that he became his biggest investor to the tune of $ 100 million.
But mystery had always surrounded the technology itself. No one was allowed to independently examine the machine.
In 2013, Holmes won a multi-million dollar contract with US drugstore chain Walgreens to perform in-store blood tests for customers.
Yet it turned out that only 15 of the 240 tests offered by Theranos were performed on the machines. “It was little more than a junk box,” said a former colleague.
Then Holmes’ alleged catalog of lies began to unravel.
Whistleblowers took to the Wall Street Journal, owned by Murdoch, and it ran a series of articles exposing the technology as a scam. Holmes was charged with multiple counts of fraud in 2018.
A jury of five men and seven women will resume hearing the case on Tuesday. Many in the public firmly refuse to believe that Holmes is a con artist.
“She always has an aura around her,” observed a local television reporter. “Now she has to persuade a jury of her peers that she is innocent. If anyone can get away with it, it’s her.
And that would surely be Holmes’ most daring feat to date.
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