[ad_1]
It wasn’t that long ago that we lived vicariously through the 1% watching “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” or “Cribs”. Now we are obsessed with the details of how they were duped. In San Jose, California, where Ms. Holmes ‘trial has been taking place for the past month, several book clubs that read “Bad Blood,” which tells of Theranos’ fall, have made pilgrimages to see her in the hall. hearing. An enthusiastic participant told me that she was “a fan of white collar crime”.
The bubbling zeal for the scam reflects the rise of “murderinos”, or fans of true murder stories. We are relieved that we are not the victim. Few of us are likely to lose millions – or hundreds of millions – on a shady start-up bet.
“Psychological distance allows us to laugh at things that, if they happened to us, would shame, embarrass or hurt us,” said Peter Atwater, an assistant professor at the College of William & Mary who studies confidence in decision-making. “Finally, some rich people have been as deceived as we poor people. “
For so-called white-collar crime fans, the startup’s scam cannon offers a growing bounty to feast on. There is the recent revelation that an Ozy executive masqueraded as a YouTube rep during a call with Goldman Sachs to try to secure an investment. There are the forged invoices that Manish Lachwani used to inflate the revenue of HeadSpin, the software company he founded, in order to secure $ 60 million in funding, according to a recent criminal indictment. (HeadSpin said it returned funds and cooperated with investigators.) There are fraudulent insurance reimbursement claims at uBiome, the crappy testing start-up whose founders, officials say, tricked investors into. mistake on their business to raise $ 65 million, which led prosecutors to indict with more than 40 counts of fraud in February. There are the private investigators and the legal intimidation tactics that Theranos used to intimidate whistleblowers, according to recent court testimony.
They follow a formula as old as “The Music Man”. A charismatic founder presents himself as a visionary disruptor. Ms Holmes said Theranos blood analysis machines can deliver hundreds of medical tests quickly and inexpensively from a single drop of blood. This promise has won over people like Gen. James Mattis, who has testified that he sees the potential to save lives on the battlefield, or Steve Burd, the former chief executive of Safeway who said putting the machines in store would open an exciting new line of business for the grocery chain.
Once a wealthy person joins, the founder can use the credibility of that benefactor to assemble a stable of still strong supporters. In the case of Theranos, George Shultz, the former Secretary of State, introduced Ms Holmes to his friends at the Hoover Institution, including Henry Kissinger and Mr Mattis. Everyone assumes that the first investor has asked all the tough questions. Further investigation is swept aside as a trade secret.
Claims can be fragile. Theranos was forecasting $ 990 million in revenue in 2015. The reality, it was revealed in court, was closer to zero. Ozy Media claimed to have written the first stories about influential people like Trevor Noah and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This was not the case. Jessica Richman, co-founder of uBiome, told reporters she qualified for the “under 30” and “under 40” lists. She was over 40, according to the indictment. Mr Neumann has promised that by 2018 WeLive, WeWork’s apartment project, will generate $ 600 million in revenue, according to “The Cult of We,” a book about the company. It never expanded beyond two buildings with a few hundred units.
[ad_2]
Source link