Recently, a number of media in the United States have been dominated by a message, that is, Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the American blood testing start-up Syranos Company, who was once famous for "one drop of blood test health", was convicted of 4 of the 11 fraud charges.
Elizabeth Holmes walks out of court on the 3rd (AFP)
According to the Associated Press reported on the 3rd, a jury composed of 12 people spent 50 hours to make a ruling, convicting her of 3 counts of telecommunications fraud and 1 count of conspiracy to commit telecommunications fraud. Each offence is punishable by up to 20 years' imprisonment. Another 4 charges were acquitted and 3 charges were shelved for the jury's failure to reach a verdict.
"The most recognizable tech executive in a generation of ambitious, loss-making startups facing fraud allegations" — that's what the New York Times said of Holmes. The ruling is notable for its rarity, as few tech executives have been charged with fraud and even fewer have been convicted. If jailed, Holmes would be the best-known female executive serving a sentence since 2004, when U.S. "home economics queen" Martha Stewart was sentenced for insider trading.
Dropping out of prestigious schools and starting a company from scratch – Holmes's history is also full of American legends. In 2003, at the age of 19, Holmes dropped out of Stanford to start a blood testing startup. She touted a technique that scans for hundreds of diseases and other potential problems by puncturing a finger to get a few drops of blood, and that patients can use the technology at home. This was later known as the "One Drop of Blood" scam.
The concept was so compelling that it raised more than $400 million in venture capital funding for Syranos and enabled it to forge partnerships with Walgreens, the nation's largest retail pharmacy, and Safeway, a well-known supermarket chain. It is estimated that her personal assets at that time were as high as $4.5 billion.
Over the next 10 years, she used the company to attract several billionaire investors while forming a board that included former cabinet members from the Nixon administration to the Trump administration.
Holmes in his lab in Siranos in 2015.
Holmes was almost a hit. The New York Times said she mimicked the subversive "world change" model pioneered by "Silicon Valley heroes" like Steve Jobs — and even mimicked Jobs's black turtleneck.
In the process, her idealistic plans and vision of overhauling the healthcare industry attracted the attention of heads of state, business leaders, and wealthy families. She traveled the world in private jets, winning awards and enthusiastic magazine cover coverage, and was hailed as the world's youngest self-made female billionaire.
After the scenery, leave a chicken feather in vain. In a 2005 interview with radio show Tech Nation, she said the Siranos device was in "production." However, 13 years later, when the company was dissolved, none of its devices were successfully released.
It was later discovered that Siranos' blood testing techniques were flawed, often producing inaccurate results that could endanger the lives of patients being tested at pharmacies.
The exposure of these issues led directly to the collapse of Sylanos in 2018, and Holmes was also charged with multiple felonies.
The whole Holmes affair was so incredible. Now that you know that it is a scam, it is difficult to believe how many celebrities from all walks of life in the United States were attracted by her "sales" and invested in the water, including many "big guys".
Inside the courtroom where Holmes was tried, jurors heard testimony from dozens of witnesses and looked at hundreds of pieces of evidence used to support prosecutors' views that Holmes had deliberately misled investors and patients in the process of fame and wealth gains.
Witnesses included former Defense Secretary James Mattis, who had served on the board of Silanos Corporation, and Lisa Peterson, who had served as former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Family Fund Manager. The trial also mentioned Major investors in Holmes, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, as well as two former secretaries of state George Schultz and Henry Kissinger, who were not subpoenaed.
The whole Holmes affair is so eye-catching: money, beauty, countless celebrities... So much so that in 2018, it was written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner John Carreru into a documentary literary work "Bad Blood", which became the best book of the year in dozens of Media outlets in the United States that year, and was later adapted into a movie by Hollywood, starring Jennifer Lawrence.
But don't let the superficial drama obscure the hidden crisis behind it. The New York Times said Syranos may have been a warning to other startups in Silicon Valley that exaggerate the facts to gain funding and business deals.
This case seems to be a case of female executives being deceived by the superb rhetoric skills of female executives, but behind it is the so-called "culture of success" in Silicon Valley and the media momentum, as well as the lack of regulation and excessive fanaticism in the venture capital market.
This seemingly inconceivable ending, in addition to being caused by demagogic propaganda, has several factors that contribute to it.
The lack of "wealth-making myths" in the media and rigorous scientific review. Holmes's entire history of development has been driven by the mainstream media along the way, and she has made good use of her publicity advantages to create eye-catching news hotspots, which are precisely the favorite of the American mass media, and have consciously or unconsciously become her accomplices. However, the company's core technology is not found in any rigorous academic journals and accepts peer review.
The stage of the company's rapid growth is in the 2008 financial crisis, the US financial market liquidity flood, the market is in urgent need of good investment targets such a period, in such a big environment, mud and sand, fish and beads are not surprising.
For a long time, people have admired the active entrepreneurial atmosphere and venture capital mechanism in Silicon Valley, and it has indeed bred a number of successful technology giants. A good venture capital environment encourages entrepreneurs to be bold and brave to try and make mistakes, but honesty and compliance with the law are always the basic principles that entrepreneurs must follow.
Buffett, an investor with the title of "stock god", once said that only when the tide is low can you find out who is swimming naked. As the Fed's new tightening cycle approaches, the investment boom that has flooded Silicon Valley and Wall Street will fade, and perhaps in the near future, one might see the story of Holmes and Syranos repeat itself.
Of course, Holmes may appeal now.
Source: Reference News Network