The protagonist of "Bad Blood", "The Female Version of Jobs", is about to be tried and faces up to 20 years in prison

Reporter | Tian Siqi

The $10 billion company has vanished, and the "female version of Jobs," who was once hailed as an entrepreneurial god, may face further imprisonment: Starting this week, charges against Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the original blood testing company Theranos, are about to go to court. If convicted of 12 counts of fraud, the 37-year-old faces up to 20 years in prison.

Before 2015, Holmes's experience was a silicon valley legend that people talk about. She grew up in a wealthy family in Washington, D.C., where both parents worked in politics. In 2003, at the age of 19, Holmes dropped out of Stanford University to start Theranos. The company claims that it only takes a few drops of blood from a finger to complete hundreds of tests and diagnose serious diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

By 2013, Holmes had led Theranos in partnership with Walgreens, a well-known U.S. pharmacy chain, and attracted several politicians to its board, including former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Schultz, and later Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

As Theranos' valuation soared to $9 billion, Holmes, who sits on 800 employees, was hailed as the richest self-made woman and "the next Steve Jobs," often on magazine covers and on TELEVISION shows.

However, this miracle of "subverting medical diagnosis" began to collapse in 2015. The Wall Street Journal's investigative report, published in October of that year, questioned Theranos' blood testers and methods, arguing that the technology was unreliable and that Theranos often used traditional laboratory equipment from outside companies to complete tests.

The company was subsequently sued by investors for fraud, the blood test license was revoked by the U.S. government, and the company's business was dissolved in September 2018. Her story, written by author John Carreyrou into the nonfiction Bad Blood, is further known.

Until three years ago, Holmes was accused of multiple frauds and conspiracies for misrepresenting the company's blood testing capabilities. But with covid-19 and Holmes' newborn son, The trial for Holmes has been delayed for months. The trial round will begin with the selection of jurors on Tuesday, August 31, and is expected to continue into December this year.

Legal documents show that doctors who use this blood test on patients, as well as patients who have been misled by Theranos' results, will provide testimony. One of the female patients said she received a blood test during pregnancy saying she had miscarried; another man was misdiagnosed with prostate cancer; and two men received false positive results for HIV.

In response, Holmes' lawyers will apply to limit the scope of patient testimony, saying such anomalies are not statistically representative of the millions of tests Conducted by Theranos. They can continue to share experiences that were misled by the test, but patients may not be able to have an emotional impact on jurors telling false results.

Documents released over the weekend show that Holmes' lawyers will also argue that Homs' ex-boyfriend and business partner, Manesh." Manesh "Sunny" Balwani sexually abused and emotionally controlled her, impairing her mental state and preventing her from making decisions on her own.

Former Deputy District Attorney of Los Angeles Emily M. According to Emily D Baker, "Her status as a new mother will not affect the trial, but if she is found guilty, the judge will most likely consider this." ”

Baker also added that "the hardest thing in any case involving fraud is to prove that the suspect had fraudulent intent, and "as a result, prosecutors will have to examine her text messages and emails and charge from the point where she knows the technology is not working but still insists on declaring that it works." ”

Related Reading: Storytelling Games, Workaholic Ethics and Gender Barriers: Why Does Bad Blood Inevitably Flow into Silicon Valley?