Silicon Valley Strange Case Of Bad Blood 10: Good and Evil Will Be Rewarded

There is an old Chinese saying: good is rewarded with good, and evil is rewarded with evil, it is not that it is not reported, the time has not yet come.

This phrase is perfectly apt for Silicon Valley company Theranos. Founded in 2003, this company advertises advanced medical technology, but in fact, it has failed to develop and grow by pit deception.

In the 12 years since its founding, the landlady Holmes has not only fooled the American business magnate and the military boss, but also launched President Biden and News Corp boss Murdochla into the water. What is even more hateful is that she used inferior blood testing instruments that had not been tested and audited for clinical diagnosis, and pitted countless patients.

Holmes adopted a "Great Purge" policy internally, expelling all conscientious employees. At the same time, he sent his own gold medal lawyers to threaten and intimidate these people and make them shut up. Several employees bravely stepped forward as "whistleblowers" and were met with frantic retaliation from her. It can be said that Holmes has done all the bad things, and it is difficult to tolerate it.

At the end of 2015, after Holmes had completed another round of financing of $400 million, when she became a guest of honor in many financial magazines, a Wall Street Journal article completely shattered her "Jobs Dream".

This article debunks Holmes' bottom line. First, she promised that her advanced blood testing instruments could do hundreds of blood tests. In fact, these instruments can only complete a small part. Second, the calibration tests for these instruments were forged, and the blood samples were over-diluted and did not meet the specifications at all. The article seriously questions the accuracy of Theranos' blood test, stressing that it is extremely shameful to do "trial and error" exercises on human life.

This article caused a big earthquake in the investment community. Various financial magazines have reprinted this article and followed the Wall Street Journal. Magazines that had taken Theranos and Holmes to the skies, such as Fortune, Forbes, and The New Yorker, turned around and began to question criticism. Before Holmes's accident, they all chased her and crowned her; when she had an accident, they immediately changed her face and made up the knife. In a word, traffic is king.

At the same time, the article caused a split in Silicon Valley. Some of the people who invested in Theranos defended Holmes, while others felt that the article finally spoke out their doubts: Why is Holmes so secretive about his technology? Why doesn't any of her board members understand medicine? Why doesn't a single medical venture capitalist give her money?

There are also some people who are completely stupid and don't know who to believe. Theranos naturally denies it all, saying the article is lying. But the Wall Street Journal is so famous, it is impossible to publish a slanderous article.

Just then, another big thing happened. The FDA recently conducted raids on Theranos' labs at its Silicon Valley headquarters and Innak, which found that some of the blood testing instruments did not meet specifications. The FDA banned these instruments from clinical and experimental use. The decision meant that the fingertip blood collection technique that Holmes had boasted about could no longer be used.

Not only did it go alone, but another agency— the American Health Insurance Center and Theronos — also offered to investigate Theranos. The reason is also related to the company's blood test technology does not meet the specifications.

Seeing that his elaborate lies had been exposed and that the building he had worked so hard to build was about to collapse, Holmes decided to make a final attempt. She accepted an invitation from CNBC to cheekily defend her company on television. She famously said: When you want to change the world, you will encounter this kind of thing. At first, people think you're crazy and hit you hard, and then suddenly you change the whole world. Maybe she was talking about Jobs, feeling that she had a similar experience with her idol. In fact, there is a difference between the two.

When the host asked her whether the Wall Street Journal article was a rumor or not, and whether the company's instruments could accurately test the blood, she began to go around in circles and could not give a direct answer. At the end of the show, Holmes said the company decided to withdraw approval for some blood tests and not let the FDA review them. In fact, it was the FDA that banned these instruments. But she said it as if she had withdrawn it on her own initiative.

The Wall Street Journal reporter certainly knows the truth. He already knew the situation through acquaintances at the FDA. Soon, a second article revealing Theranos was published. This time the shock was even greater. Theranos quickly issued a statement saying that the Wall Street Journal was fake and that he would not give up and take it to court.

But the company's employees couldn't stand it. They can't imagine their units fighting the famous Wall Street Journal. But Holmes did not want to concede defeat and decided to confront the enemy head-on. She was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and met face-to-face with tech editors about the technical issues mentioned in the article.

In the interview, she avoided the heavy and light, simply saying that the instrument banned by the FDA was developed by the company in the early days, which was outdated and not used. She then blamed the "whistleblowers" and journalists who provided the information, saying they did not know the truth and distorted the facts. The editor asked her why there were inconsistent blood test results, and she said these were individual cases and did not represent the whole.

After returning to the company, Holmes published a long article that refuted the reporter's doubts in the article. This long article attempts to downplay the problem, and the big things become small things. Later, she reorganized the board of directors and put all the old guys aside to set up an advisory board, with boies, a gold medal lawyer, as the chairman.

Boies sent an ultimatum to the Wall Street Journal, saying that he wanted to formally prosecute, asking the newspaper to forward all emails and documents related to Theranos to him for future evidence. The reporter was not intimidated. He concentrated on sorting out all the information provided by the "whistleblower" and sent 4 breaking news articles in succession.

In these articles, the reporter pointed out that the US pharmacy giant Walgreens has long stopped its plan to expand the Theranos blood test center across the country, and the US retail giant Safeway has long terminated its cooperation with Theranos. In addition, Theranos tried to sell stocks at a high price before the Wall Street Journal published a breaking news article. Moreover, its laboratory operation is extremely irregular, and the operators are not qualified.

These revelations stung Holmes hard. She found a large team to plan and began to fight back. Logically, she should refute everything listed in the article. But these are facts that cannot be refuted. So she took a different approach and chose an unbelievable method.

She portrayed the reporter as a mischievous woman. To gain public sympathy, she decided to announce that she had been sexually assaulted while she was an undergraduate at Stanford. This is so absurd that even the consultants find it outrageous. In the end, Holmes decided to say she was a victim of sexism. In any case, the number and status of men in Silicon Valley are much higher than those of women. Facebook's female CFO earns tens of millions of dollars a year, complains all day about unequal treatment, and writes bestsellers.

At the same time, Holmes' mentor at Stanford, the chemistry professor who encouraged her to start her business, also came to help. He insisted Theranos' technology was unmatched and beyond the limits of what could be approved. Holmes is a once-in-a-century genius, comparable to Newton, Einstein, Mozart, Leonardo da Vinci and other cattle people. I can't help but laugh, this so-called "brick family beast" is simply a brain disease.

At this time, Holmes was still expanding his political influence. Not only did she win the title of "Woman of the Year" by best-selling magazines, but she also became a sister with Clinton's daughter and often attended dinners at his house. In 2006, Hillary Clinton was a popular candidate for president, and Holmes and her daughter were friendly, and the intention could not be clearer.

Seeing Holmes struggling desperately, stubbornly resisting, and threatening to come back to life, another big thing happened. This incident has the power to destroy ravaging, making Holmes a "queen in new clothes".

In fact, the reason why Theranos has existed for more than ten years and can get various cooperation projects is mainly due to the certification of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the United States. As mentioned earlier, Holmes has always emphasized that all blood tests performed by devices are "experiments" and can skip the FDA. Her company only needs to obtain a blood test license, issued by CMS.

Although the FDA has banned Theranos' devices from performing blood tests, the impact on the company is not a bone injury. Originally, Holmes did not want to work hard to obtain FDA certification. Since you don't get it, you don't feel sad to lose it.

But this time, CMS also began investigating Theranos. Because someone exposed it under his real name, saying that Theranos hurt nature and reason, sought public wealth, and harmed the lives of patients. The letter attracted the attention of CMS, and within 3 days it sent someone to raid Theranos for inspection. Despite Holmes and his lawyers' obstruction and desperate delay, investigators found problems and irregularities.

Holmes promised to change it and asked the investigator to come back in half a year. As a result, this time there were more problems, and even the experimenters were threatened not to tell the truth. CMS issued a warning letter to Theranos, ordering him to come up with a plan within 10 days to address these issues. The letter was supposed to be made public, but Theranos, citing trade secrets, did not allow CMS to be made public.

The Wall Street Journal reporter walked around in many ways and actually got the letter. The letter was written in black and white that Theranos' blood test equipment was neither working properly nor completing the promised hundreds of tests. After that, another letter said the company had 45 violations, but only 2 were eventually changed. CMS decided to revoke Theranos' business qualifications and barred Holmes from working related to blood tests for the next two years. This is equivalent to a two-year suspension of athletes.

After the two letters were published in the Wall Street Journal, Theranos finally made it honest. If the FDA's punishment can still be prevaricated, and the company's shady revelations can be refuted with lies, cmS's ban can not be covered up. Holmes finally took off his "Jobs-esque" black sweater, admitted his mistake to the public, and apologized for reviewing it.

But she didn't want to carry the black pot, but betrayed her old Indian boyfriend. Soon, the company sent out a news that the Indian boss was not well managed and resigned. In fact, she fired people.

However, Holmes's bad luck has only just begun. The Wall Street Journal article and cmS's ban led the U.S. Attorney's Office to begin a criminal investigation into Theranos. The SEC also began investigating the company, finding it suspected of fraud.

So which hero whistleblowed cms? The answer turned out to be George Schultz's grandson's former colleague at Theranos, the weak girl, a small clerk who was too scared to go out by the lawyer's stalking. If you don't say that the rabbit is in a hurry, it will bite people. Although the girl was threatened and intimidated, she eventually became angry and reported Theranos for cheating under her real name. Here I also advise everyone not to get along with introverted and shy people, maybe they will get in a hurry and throw a bomb on your head.

Seeing one scandal after another, shareholders couldn't stand it. It turned out that the venture capital firm in San Francisco was the first to attack and decided to sue Theranos for fraud, defrauding itself of $100 million. Other shareholders followed suit, while others opted for more equity to guarantee no prosecution. As for the financial predator Murdoch, the old man is very lenient. He asked Holmes to buy back his shares, selling them for only a dollar each. Why? Because this failed investment can give him a lot of tax cuts, not too much loss.

Theranos continued to apologize and settled out of court with pharmacy giant Walgreen. Walgreen suffered a big loss this time, not only spending hundreds of millions of dollars to renovate the pharmacy and run an outpatient clinic for Theranos, but also received a large number of complaints from doctors and patients, and his reputation was discredited. Supermarket chain giant Safeway saw Walgreen's situation and lamented that he had escaped early. If the original confused CEO is still there, he may have planted a big heel himself.

Supposedly Theranos was so bad, no one should believe it anymore. But there is such a miraculous thing in the world. Another company invested in the company for $100 million, provided that Theranos' product quality was up to expectations. And Holmes did not fall into the dust, but soon became engaged to a rich second generation who opened a restaurant. Even if she is notorious, she is still a celebrity and has a rich life.

As for the lawsuit she and her old Indian boyfriend got into, it was also postponed because of last year's new crown epidemic. She appeared in court in early May and was pregnant. Her lawyer stressed that The bad climate in Silicon Valley has played a role in fueling the entire scandal. The reason Holmes makes so many mistakes is that they are misled by the entire Silicon Valley capital supremacy and the culture of 'fake it till you make it'. The judge seemed to be more tolerant of Holmes. In short, everything is full of variables, and the exact outcome is still unknown.

More interesting is the Wall Street Journal reporter. This person wrote a book about the whole event and published it, which was a big hit all over the world and became a sensation. He was invited to speak everywhere, and he was paid a lot. Unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal has a rule that working journalists cannot give paid speeches. The reporter felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for himself, so he resolutely resigned and calmly held lectures everywhere. I am fully convinced that his book manuscript fees and speech fees far exceed the salary he receives at the newspaper office. And he also said that he will continue to work as an investigative journalist, of course, as his own boss.