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The alleged Theranos fraudster, Elizabeth Holmes, is pregnant, according to a new court file, potentially delaying her trial by several weeks.
Holmes is accused of fraud for her role as head of Theranos, a blood testing startup that was a rising star in Silicon Valley before it was found to have distorted the effectiveness of its technology.
Holmes’ attorneys asked the judge on March 2 to postpone the start of jury selection to August 31, beyond his scheduled date of arrival.
“The parties have met and consulted, and both parties agree that, in light of this development, it is not possible to open the trial on July 13, 2021, as currently scheduled,” the file said.
Holmes, who dropped out of Stanford at 19, founded Theranos in 2003 with the aim of revolutionizing blood testing. She quickly became a star in the largely male-dominated startup space.
The rise and fall of the company has become a cautionary tale of the pitfalls of the Silicon Valley hype machine: It received rave media coverage and raised over $ 700 million from investors claiming that it ‘she had invented a machine capable of performing hundreds of lab tests with just one finger. -blood prick. The tests were rolled out at Walgreens stores and Theranos hit a valuation of $ 9 billion before it became clear that many claims about the company’s allegedly groundbreaking blood test were untrue.
Holmes and former Theranos chairman Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani have pleaded not guilty to fraud charges by investors, doctors and patients. Theranos’ tests for calcium, potassium, HIV, and diabetes, for example, have distorted their effectiveness.
“Based on these statements, several hundred patients have paid or compelled their medical insurance companies to pay Theranos for blood tests and test results, sometimes as a result of referrals from their defrauded doctors,” the initial indictment.
Holmes was indicted in 2018 and her federal trial in San Jose, California was originally scheduled for July 28, 2020, but has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Balwani’s case is being handled separately and his trial is scheduled to begin on January 18.
The Silicon Valley saga has inspired a bestselling book, popular podcast, several documentaries and a feature film.
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