The Wall Street Journal reported Sept. 9 that the criminal case of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the blood testing company Theranos, was heard wednesday, with prosecutors and defense attorneys making presentations. She faces federal charges for falsely claiming to possess revolutionary blood testing techniques and defrauding patients and investors.
The trial is expected to last more than three months. Holmes dropped out of Stanford to start a business and rose to fame that year, founding a seemingly cutting-edge healthcare company that was once valued at more than $9 billion before it collapsed over technology. Her story was written by author John Carreyrou into the nonfiction Bad Blood.
Prosecutors stated their allegations against Holmes, who fraudulently boasted that Theranos' blood detectors were able to accurately and reliably detect a range of health conditions through finger blood tests. To be convicted, government lawyers must convince the jury that Holmes was deliberately fraudulent, not just that the company was having trouble fulfilling its promises.
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