Thursday, September 09, 2021
Hyped founder in court
Prosecutor accuses Holmes of lying
“When she ran out of money and time, Elizabeth Holmes decided to lie.” The allegations weigh heavily: The ex-superstar is said to have made a fortune with non-functioning blood tests and deceived investors. The 37-year-old is on trial in California.
She was once celebrated as a biotech pioneer and now has to answer in court as a defendant: The eagerly awaited fraud trial against former blood test entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes has begun in San José, California. The prosecution accused the 37-year-old in the opening statement of having fraudulently made it to the billionaire. Holmes’ defense lawyers, on the other hand, alleged that she had only made business mistakes. “This case is about lying and cheating to get money,” said prosecutor Robert Leach. “When she ran out of money and time, Elizabeth Holmes decided to lie.”
Theranos founder is accused of having deceived investors, doctors and patients with the promise of a revolutionary technology for fast and inexpensive blood tests. If convicted of fraud or conspiracy to commit fraud, she faces up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutor Leach said Holmes and her business partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani had claimed that the Theranos-developed device could “perform any medical test imaginable for a very low cost from a drop of blood from the fingertip.” They also stated that the US Army used the device, that it was being advertised by large pharmaceutical companies and that they would soon make “hundreds of millions of dollars”.
Holmes founded her company in 2003 when she was only 19 years old. The charismatic young entrepreneur and self-made billionaire was celebrated for years as a Silicon Valley pioneer. For the board of directors of her company, she was able to win over celebrities such as ex-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the later Secretary of Defense James Mattis. It later became clear that her blood testing machines were not working at all.
“Mistakes are not a crime”
“Theranos failed in part because mistakes were made,” said Holmes attorney Lance Wade. “But mistakes are not crimes.” The failure of a company does not immediately turn its board of directors into a criminal. During the trial, which is scheduled to take at least 13 weeks, the defense is apparently shifting the responsibility to Holmes’ former partner Balwani. “You will hear that one of your mistakes was to trust Mr. Balwani and rely on him as your main advisor,” Wade told the jury.
According to this, Holmes was exploited and controlled by the man who was almost 20 years older and with whom she had a relationship in the meantime. Balwani is slated to go through a separate process early next year. In the trial against Holmes last week, the twelve jurors who will judge guilt or innocence were selected.
The trial in the city of San José, south of San Francisco in Silicon Valley, is accompanied by great media interest. The hearings are set to continue on Friday. The start of the process had previously been postponed several times, most recently because Holmes had a child in July.
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