“Next Steve Jobs“. INC magazine cover in October 2015 Elizabeth Holmesthat she describes as one of the women who “could be the owner of the future”. By that time, the young entrepreneur had convinced a large part of the political and economic elite. United States of America your company teranoswould revolutionize blood testing. this tuesday will be prison He’s about to begin his 11 years and 3 months sentence for one of the biggest scams in Silicon Valley.
one year later judgmentOn November 18, the US court found Holmes behind bars for more than a decade. to betray After uncovering a scandal so scandalous that it led to hundreds of millions of dollars, documentaries and TV series to investors of the company he founded in 2003 and went bankrupt in 2018. The businesswoman agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and was convicted along with her former partner, a former Theranos executive. Ramesh “Sunny” Balwaniwill pay another 452 million in compensation.
At its peak, Theranos was valued at more than $9 billion, and Holmes’ net worth was nearly $4.5 billion on paper. The new prison life will be very different. The woman, who was declared the queen of entrepreneurs, will now live in a cell she will share with three inmates in a women’s prison in Bryan, Texas, US media reported.
Holmes’ lawyers requested that Holmes not go to prison until the appeal was resolved, but the request was denied. Balwani, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison, is serving his sentence at San Pedro federal prison in California.
A fraud that seduces the elite
At age 19, Holmes dropped out of Stanford University to found Theranos, a health technology company that claims to have designed a revolutionary testing system that works with small amounts of blood. With this, he wanted to make blood tests cheaper so that they were more accessible. The word seduced many venture capital funds and private investors who have contributed more than $700 million to the project, making it tenth.start‘ most supported at the time. It has also attracted hundreds of scientists, engineers and business people who want to work for a company that looks set to change the healthcare industry.
Holmes’ charisma was key to this. His tale of meritocracy, which revived all myths, has made him the new muse of Silicon Valley, the home of the American tech industry. This story was bought by many journalists who empowered it, but also by powerful businessmen like the media mogul. Rupert MurdochFamily that owns Walmart supermarkets or former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Their million-dollar investment was blown away by Holmes’ promises.
Marketing story of Theranos, investigative reporter in October 2015 john carreyrouHe ran a story from The Wall Street Journal questioning the accuracy of the supposed technology the company had created. Over the next few years, investigations by US health officials and the US market revealed that Holmes and Balwani had secretly ordered blood tests to show that their failing system was working.
“For nearly a decade, Elizabeth Holmes fabricated and spread elaborate lies to attract a legion of capital investors, large and small, and her deception resulted in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars. Her conviction reflects the audacity of her colossal fraud and the astounding damage she has caused,” published last November. read the sentence. The fruit of all vices speculative capitalismThe house of cards that was Theranos collapsed and dragged along with it the anti-hero who had managed to deceive the United States.