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“The youngest self-made billionaire in the world,” according to Forbes magazine. The “next Steve Jobs”, he dubbed it Inc, another business magazine which put it on the cover.
In 2014, Elizabeth holmes, then 30 years old, was on top of the world.
After dropping out of Stanford University, he founded a successful company in US $ 9 billion, for allegedly causing a revolution in disease diagnosis.
With a few drops of blood, the proof Edison from the company Theranos it promised to quickly detect diseases such as cancer and diabetes without the need for needles.
Big blows from Henry Kissinger to Rupert Murdoch invested in her.
But by 2015 the project was starting to show fluff, and within a year Holmes’ idea turned out to be wrong.
The technology he promoted was not working at all, and by 2018 the company he founded had collapsed.
Today Holmes, 37, faces 20 years in prison if convicted of all 12 counts of fraud against her.
He has never told his side of the story before.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch lost $ 165 million to Theranos.
Her trial, which begins this month – the United States vs. Elizabeth Holmes, et al – will be closely watched. He should plead not guilty.
And in a twist, it emerged this weekend that her lawyers will argue that her ex-boyfriend and business partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, sexually assaulted and emotionally controlled her at the time of the alleged crimes, undermining her mental state.
Balwani, 56, who faces the same fraud charges, called the accusations “outrageous”.
It will be up to a jury to decide how compassionately or how severely to judge the woman who deceived everyone, from statesmen to secretaries.
Pressure from the start
Although it has been the subject of a book, HBO documentary, and an upcoming TV series and film, it’s still unclear why Holmes took so many risks with a technology that he knew it wasn’t working.
Holmes grew up in a wealthy family in Washington DC, and she was an educated but withdrawn girl, according to people who knew her.
Holmes accuses her former partner and partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, of sexually assaulting her.
Inventor and entrepreneur Richard Fuisz, 81, speculates that there must have been immense pressure on her to be successful.
His family had lived next door to Holmes for years, but they fell out when Theranos sued him over a patent litigation in 2011 (it was later resolved).
Holmes’ parents were for much of their careers bureaucrats on Capitol Hill (i.e. the United States Congress and surrounding administrative buildings), but “they were very interested in status“and” they were living for relationships, “Fuisz told the BBC.
His father’s great-great-grandfather was the founder of Fleischmann yeast, which changed the bread industry in the United States, and the family were well aware of their lineage, he said.
Professor Phyillis Gardener told Holmes his idea would not work.
At the age of nine, young Elizabeth wrote a letter to her father stating that what she “really wanted out of life was to discover something new, something that mankind didn’t know was possible.” “.
When he came to Stanford University in 2002 to study chemical engineering, came up with the idea of a patch that could scan for infections in the user and release antibiotics as needed.
At 18, he already showed an intransigence which, it seemed, would continue to promote the company he founded the following year.
Phyllis Gardner, an expert in clinical pharmacology at Stanford, remembers discussing Holmes’ skin patch idea and telling him “it wouldn’t work.”
“She just looked at me but it was like she hadn’t seen me,” Gardner told the BBC.
“And it seemed absolutely sure of its own shine. She wasn’t interested in my experience and it was disturbing. ”
Meteoric rise
Months later, at 19, Holmes dropped out of Stanford and freed Theranos, this time with a seemingly revolutionary way of testing blood with a simple finger prick.
Many powerful people have been captivated and invested in the business without seeing audited financial accounts.
On stage alongside former US President Bill Clinton in 2015. At the time, Holmes was the youngest self-made billionaire in the world.
US Secretary of the Treasury George Schultz, Decorated Marine Corps General James Mattis (who later served in the Trump administration) and America’s richest family, the Waltons, were among those to whom they were brought. provided their support.
This gave credibility, like the way they behave.
“I knew she had this great idea and had succeeded in convincing all these investors and scientists,” said Jeffrey Flier, former dean of Harvard Medical School, who met her for lunch in 2015.
“She was sure of herself, but when I asked her several questions about her technology, she didn’t seem to understand,” adds Flier, who has never formally evaluated her technology.
“It seemed a little strange to me, but I didn’t come out thinking it was a fraud.”
Flier ended up inviting her to join the Medical School Board of Scholars, which she regrets, although Holmes was fired when the scandal erupted.
Unreliable results
It all started collapse in 2015 when an insider raised concerns about Theranos’ flagship test device, the Edison.
The Wall Street Journal wrote a series of damning disclosures stating that the results were unreliable and that the company had used commercially available machines made by other manufacturers for most of its testing.
In 2018, Theranos dissolved.
Abused or abused?
In March of that year, Holmes settled civil charges against financial regulators for fraudulently raising $ 700 million from investors.
But three months later it was arrested, with Balwani, on criminal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Prosecutors say she knowingly misled patients about testing and grossly overstated the company’s performance vis-à-vis funders.
The way he behaved and the support he received gave him credibility.
Holmes was released on bail and in 2019, she married William “Billy” Evans, 27, heir to the Evans Hotel Group. They had a child in July of this year.
“I don’t think the fact that she is a mother now influences the trial, but the judge will likely take that into account if she is convicted,” said Emily D Baker, former Los Angeles assistant prosecutor and legal commentator. who is it related to the case.
The trial
As the trial of the Theranos scandal draws near, commentators say it’s remarkable how true she has remained to her original story and people who knew her say they doubt she has changed.
According to court documents, Holmes’ attorneys are prepared to claim that “she believed any alleged misrepresentation” about Theranos to be true and that it was “a legitimate business generating value for investors “.
They are also likely to consider that the Balwani’s alleged controlling behavior He has “erased his ability to make decisions”, including his ability to “deceive his victims”.
They say the former director of operations at Theranos, who will be tried separately next year, monitored how he dressed, what he ate and who he spoke to for more than a decade.
They will also call a psychologist specializing in sexual abuse as a witness.
It is not known if Holmes will speak.
“The most difficult thing in any case of fraud is show that the person tried to defraud“Baker explained.
“So prosecutors will have to use her texts and emails and say she knew the technology wasn’t working, but she did.”
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