Technology

Theranos: Jury set to begin deliberations in Holmes’ fraud trial

Few tech executives have been indicted over fraud and fewer have gone to prison

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes walks with her partner Billy Evans, her mother Noel Holmes and father Christian Holmes as they leave court last week. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Erin Griffith
Mon Dec 20 2021 - 15:21

A jury was set to begin deliberating the merits of the fraud trial against Elizabeth Holmes, the entrepreneur accused of lying to investors and patients about her blood testing start-up Theranos, on Monday. Ms Holmes’s trial has stretched nearly four months, with testimony from dozens of witnesses including scientists, chief executives and a four-star general. The proceedings have come to represent a defining moment for the tech industry and its culture of overly optimistic salesmanship.

The jury of eight men and four women will debate whether prosecutors have shown, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Ms Holmes committed nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud while pitching Theranos to investors and patients. Her former business partner and boyfriend, Ramesh Balwani, was indicted alongside her in 2018. Both have pleaded not guilty. Mr Balwani faces trial next year.

Rare case

Each of the 11 counts carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, although they would most likely be served concurrently. Deliberations are scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Ms Holmes’s case stands out for its rarity: few tech executives have been indicted over fraud, fewer have gone to prison and even fewer than that have been women. The case covers more than half a decade of business dealings. Ms Holmes founded Theranos in 2003, and the start-up went on to raise $945 million (€838 million) from investors such as Rupert Murdoch, the family of former US education secretary Betsy DeVos and the heirs to the Walmart fortune. Theranos conducted more than 8 million blood tests on patients.

Last week, prosecutors and Ms Holmes’s defence lawyers summarised their points for the jury over hours-long closing statements. Kevin Downey, Ms Holmes’s lawyer, said she did not purposely mislead investors and patients with her statements. She thought Theranos’s technology worked, he argued, and investors misunderstood statements she made about what Theranos planned to do in the future for what it could do at the time.

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“She believed she was building a technology that would change the world,” he said. Jeffrey Schenk, an assistant US attorney and a lead prosecutor, pointed to evidence showing that Ms Holmes was aware that Theranos’s tests had accuracy problems and that its business was failing. Ms Holmes chose to keep the company alive by lying, he said.

“She chose fraud over business failure,” he said.

– This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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