...booting of the CEO and co-founder, and a wrongful dismissal lawsuit by a former VP of product and engineering, Matthew Truebe. Certainly, its investors led by SoftBank, which raised $300 million in December less than six months after a raise of $127 million, are unhappy at watching their $4.8 billion baby crash and burn. The second “rerun” Theranos trial of Sunny Balwani rests. This much-muted trial is winding towards its close. Receiving much less breathless and near-sensational coverage than Elizabeth Holmes’, Theranos president Balwani was tried in the same San Jose Federal district court, with the same prosecutor (Robert Leach),... Continue Reading
Search Results for theranos
The Theranos Trials, ch. 3: Sunny and Elizabeth were in it together, all the way
...its due diligence. Theranos handed over a hard drive to the Department of Justice with encrypted test data for more than 9 million Theranos patients back in 2018. The DOJ didn’t analyze that database, and therefore, Cazares argued, the government cannot definitively say how well or not well Theranos’ technology worked.” It’s an interesting limb but given the Holmes convictions, feels to this Editor like one that’s easily sawed off. The first witness called was Erika Cheung, the Theranos lab associate who became a whistleblower. Court ended before she got to any statements, but in the Holmes trial she stated... Continue Reading
The Theranos Trials, ch. 2: bail tightened for Holmes, previewing the Balwani trial, and ‘The Dropout’
...of 4 March with hearings in June. Ms. Holmes does own property, though it is unknown what her remaining assets are since she never sold her Theranos holdings. Her partner and family can help her with the requirement. Mercury News (paywalled, but refresh) The Trial, ch. 1 Meanwhile, Sunny Balwani’s trial in the same Federal District court and with Judge Davila starts next Wednesday 9 March with jury selection. Balwani was indicted in 2018 on the same charges as Holmes’ but his trial was severed from Holmes’ when her defense raised charges of abuse. Judge Davila is making moves to... Continue Reading
The Theranos Trials, ch. 1: Holmes sentencing to be 26 September, three mistrial charges dropped, appeal dates set
Yesterday, Elizabeth Holmes’ next few months were outlined for her. Her sentencing for the four charges on which she was convicted [TTA 4 Jan] will be 26 September by the trial judge, Judge Edward Davila. The delay in sentencing due to the ‘ongoing proceeding’ of the Sunny Balwani trial (scheduled to start 15 March) was revealed in a joint filing by the prosecution and Holmes’ defense. The filing confirmed that the prosecution would file a motion today (Friday) to dismiss the three deadlocked charges and that she will remain out of custody on a $500,000 bond secured by personal property,... Continue Reading
Breaking–The Trial of Elizabeth Holmes, ch. 16: guilty on four charges of 11
Breaking. Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, was found guilty on four charges of wire fraud of the 11 charges brought by the prosecution. The guilty charges are, according to the reports in the New York Times and the Mercury News (paywalled, but keep refreshing), all related to wire fraud against investors. Counts six through eight are fraud against specific investors. The TTA articles relating to each are linked. Count one of conspiring to commit wire fraud against investors in Theranos between 2010 and 2015 Count six of wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of $38,336,632 on... Continue Reading
Theranos, The Trial of Elizabeth Holmes closes, ch. 15: she believed! in the technology!
The defense returned to their closing arguments on Friday. According to lead defense attorney Kevin Downey, not only did Holmes appoint a stellar board, but also the evidence showed that she believed intensely in the Theranos technology changing the world. Holmes stayed till the end trying to save the company–because she believed in improving healthcare She continued to improve the company and the technology, but after all that she didn’t realize… …that the labs had problems until March 2016, when her very last lab director, Kingshuk Das, MD, invalidated 60,000 lab tests made on Theranos labs in 2014-2015. This happened... Continue Reading
Theranos, The Trial of Elizabeth Holmes closes, ch. 14: was it fraud over business failure–or building a company, not a criminal enterprise?
The flat spin starts as the trial winds up. On Thursday, the prosecution presented its closing argument to the jury, and the defense began its summary which will finish on Friday. The key prosecution points made by Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Schenk were: Elizabeth Holmes’ decisions were all hers. She first defrauded investors, then deceived patients. “She chose fraud over business failure. She chose to be dishonest with investors and with patients.” Elizabeth Holmes was not a young, naive CEO. She had headed Theranos for nearly a decade. But it was ‘a house of cards.’ A decision about Sunny Balwani’s... Continue Reading
Theranos, The Trial of Elizabeth Holmes, ch. 13: a crescendo of ‘I don’t knows’ and ‘I don’t remembers’…and the defense rests! (updated)
...Did she not believe that then? She then proceeded not to remember that she forwarded the article via email to investors on 12 June 2014. “I think I could have handled those communications differently.” More not knowing or remembering. Were Theranos labs being used on military medevacs, as witnesses from Walgreens and Safeway, among others, have testified? Was Walgreens told of difficulties with the Theranos labs? Did or didn’t she dismiss concerns raised by Erika Cheung and Tyler Shultz to John Carreyrou of the WSJ as coming from disgruntled employees? Did she present a 2015 revenue projection of nearly $1... Continue Reading
Theranos, The Trial of Elizabeth Holmes, ch. 12: all bucks stop with the CEO (updated)
...needed to be substantiated. It’s not clear from the articles whether these were made. Where walk-backs on these claims were most certainly not made were the investor presentations, including not disclosing that most testing was done on third-party machines, leaving the impression that Theranos labs were capable of running 1,000 tests. Texts between Balwani and Holmes confirmed she knew that Theranos was in critical financial shape throughout 2013, burning through funding like tinder. 2014 was ‘fake till you make it’ time with sunny (sic) revenue projections–convincing to PFM Management and the DeVos family office, kicking in funds totaling close to... Continue Reading
Theranos, The Trial of Elizabeth Holmes, ch. 11: Holmes’ widening gyre of diffusion of blame–and abuse
...time. This reinforces the defense opening back in September that relying on Balwani as president was one of her mistakes. Validation? Adam Rosendorff, a former lab director, was less than competent [TTA 6 Oct] Not disclosing about using third-party devices? A ‘trade secret’ recommended by legal counsel. And the marketing/PR claim about Theranos using only ‘a single drop of blood’? (And all that ‘passionate intensity’ Holmes exhibited at investor conferences and interviews?) Blame TBWA/Chiat/Day, the ad agency! And Patrick O’Neill, who went from executive creative director there to creative director of Theranos and prepped her for the press including her... Continue Reading
Most Recent Comments