The Silicon Valley region, located in the city of San Francisco in the United States, where the world’s technology pioneers originate, was also the address of a major fraud case until recently. In 2003, a 19-year-old woman named Elizabeth Holmes founded a company called Theranos, promising to perform blood tests quickly and accurately with only a small amount of blood sample, using tiny automated devices.
This promise of Elizabeth Holmes was a complete lie. Moreover, the deception of this fraudulent story, which once made her the richest woman in the world, came to light in 2015, 12 years after the company was founded. With the emergence of the story, the $ 4.5 billion fortune that Holmes had achieved until then was taken away from him. After lengthy lawsuits, the company he founded was also closed. But the case against Holmes has continued to this day.
At last the trial was over, Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty:
Holmes’ trial, whose indictment was finalized in June 2018 due to Holmes’ pregnancy and COVID-19, only started on 31 August. Holmes faced a total of 11 charges. Prosecutors claimed that Holmes knowingly lied about the technology he had developed. Jurors found Holmes guilty on four different charges. These crimes include conspiracy to defraud investors and three electronic fraud charges. Holmes, 37, is expected to face up to 20 years in prison.
Holmes denied all charges against him. During the four-month trial, two very different narratives were presented to the jury of eight men and four women. Prosecutors sought to prove that Holmes had knowingly sold the fraudulent product to investors by calling 30 witnesses to the jurors. In the closing speech of the case, which lasted four months and ended today, Prosecutor Jeff Schenk used the following statements:
“Holmes chose fraud over failure. He chose not to be honest with investors and patients. Holmes told his investors that the technology was working as they planned. ”
In the case, the defense also made interesting claims to protect Holmes. On Holmes’ defense, which creates a fracture in a male-dominated industry and creates the image of a dedicated woman, Holmes acknowledged the flaws in Theranos’ technology, but claimed that she did not knowingly defraud her patients or investors.
Most recently, Holmes accused Ramesh Sunny Balwani, her former business partner and ex-boyfriend, 19 years older, of emotional and sexual harassment. The trial of Balwani, the former head of Theranos, will begin next month.
The fraud story of Elizabeth Holmes will also be screened by Apple as a movie.
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