Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes guilty of 4 counts of fraud, conspiracy
CBC
Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes was convicted on four counts of fraud and conspiracy Monday, ending a lengthy trial that has captivated Silicon Valley.
The former entrepreneur remained seated and expressed no emotion as the verdicts were read. Her partner, Billy Evans, showed agitation in earlier moments but appeared calm during the verdict reading.
After the judge left the courtroom to meet with jurors individually, Holmes got up to hug Evans and her parents before leaving with her lawyers. Evans later emerged in the hallway outside the courtroom, looking visibly shaken and emotional.
A once-celebrated entrepreneur, Holmes was accused of duping investors and patients about a flawed blood-testing technology that she hailed as a medical breakthrough.
Nine of the 11 counts against her were fraud charges and two were connected to a conspiracy to commit fraud from 2010 to 2015. During that time, Holmes became a Silicon Valley sensation worth $4.5 billion US on paper, based on her promise that Theranos' technology would revolutionize health care.
WATCH | Holmes under cross-examination:
She could face more than 20 years in federal prison.
After starting Theranos in 2003 as a 19-year-old college dropout, Holmes began working on a technology that she repeatedly promised would be able to scan for hundreds of health issues with just a few drops of blood taken with a finger prick. Conventional methods require a needle inserted into a person's vein to draw a vial of blood for each test, which must then be carried out at large laboratories.
Holmes said she believed she could provide more humane, convenient and cheaper blood tests with "mini-labs" in Walgreens and Safeway stores across the U.S., using a small testing device dubbed "Edison" in homage to the famous inventor.
The concept proved to be compelling. Theranos raised more than $900 million US from a long list of elite investors, including savvy billionaires such as media mogul Rupert Murdoch and software magnate Larry Ellison.
But most people didn't know that the Theranos blood-testing technology kept producing misleading results that led the company to secretly rely on conventional blood testing. Evidence presented at the trial also showed Holmes lied about purported deals that Theranos had reached with big drug companies, such as Pfizer, and with the U.S. military.
In 2015, a series of explosive articles in The Wall Street Journal and a regulatory audit of Theranos' lab uncovered potentially dangerous flaws in the company's technology, leading to the company's eventual collapse.
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