Recently, the USA and the world have been shaken by a fraud story. If the allegations are confirmed and the judiciary decides in this direction; A very serious compensation and prison sentence awaits Elizabeth Holmes, the main heroine of the event. Alright; Jealous of Jet Fadil, Pheasant Osman, Cem Uzan and Tosuncuk; What is the origin of this event that shook Silicon Valley and the USA?
Actually, this phenomenon is not new; The indictment began to be prepared 3 years ago and has just been completed. In other words, it is an event that broke out in 2018. Elizabeth Holmes; He establishes a company called Theranos in 2003 and takes over as CEO of this company. This company is ostensibly being touted as a company dealing with the healthcare industry. But the essence of the matter is actually quite different.
Father’s daughter: Elizabeth Holmes
Elizabeth Holmes; Born in 1984, now 34 years old, and most importantly, one of the grandchildren of the famous Fleischmann Family. Holmes’ father was also one of the main actors in the Enron Case, one of the biggest corruption cases in the USA. So much so that we can easily say that her daughter followed in her father’s footsteps. Holmes was brought up in a middle-class family. The family looking for their old flashy days; From an early age he instilled in Holmes the idea that “family names should be re-announced to the world.” After a while, Holmes became obsessed with becoming a billionaire. Of course, no one expected such a performance from Holmes.
University life is changing
Holmes dropped out of Stanford University’s Chemical Engineering department in his sophomore year. As it can be understood from here, Holmes is not an empty person. He shares with several of his professors at Stanford the idea of doing hundreds of tests with a drop of blood. His teachers also reject this idea because they find it contrary to human biology. Except, of course, Channing Robertson, Dean of the School of Engineering at Stanford University, Professor of Chemistry. Robertson is impressed by Holmes’ idea and sends Holmes to Silicon Valley with his reference. Holmes is taking the first steps to found Theranos in Silicon Valley, thanks to Robertson’s reference. Here he meets many investors thanks to Robertson’s reference.
Holmes, who founded the company Theranos in 2003 with the investments he collected; He says that a new technology has been discovered and a new era will be opened in medicine with this technology. According to Holmes, hundreds of analyzes were possible with a single drop of blood sample. As a company, they set out to invite investors to this technology. So much so that they found many victims on this road. Among these victims are billionaire Rupert Murdock, owner of the world-famous media groups News Corporation and Fox Group, Lawrence Joseph Ellison, owner of Oracle software and the title of the 15th richest person in the world, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, who was the richest person in the world in 2011, and the top of the merchandising industry. There is also the Walton Family. Allegedly, Holmes collected $900 million in investments from these investors in the first place.
The power behind the trust in the company
Perhaps the point that convinced the investors the most was that many other highly respected bureaucrats such as Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Former Secretary of Defense William Perry and Former Secretary of the Treasury George Shultz were persuaded to serve on the board of directors. In addition, Holmes is a staunch Steve Jobs fan; It is known that he dressed like Steve Jobs, made effective presentations like him, fed like Jobs, and transferred some of the senior employees working in Jobs’ team to his own company. In this period, it was promised that the products produced by the company would also be used in the Afghanistan War. All of these played a key role in attracting investors to the company.
Theranos’ reputation grows
Theranos and Holmes soon became stars in Silicon Valley. So much so that Theranos is the fastest growing company; Holmes became the youngest billionaire. Holmes, who has been on the cover of veteran magazines such as Forbes and Fortune, gave a conference with Former US President Clinton. It is also known that the voice of Holmes, whose reputation is increasing, is very remarkable. As the fruit of all this fame and power show, Holmes hit the jackpot with the contract he signed with Walgreens, the most famous pharmacy chain in the USA.
Does the state sleep in this process?
This fictitious technology and dishonest company; You may have wondered where the huge US control mechanism is in this story as we continue to shake our heads. In the USA, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), affiliated to the Ministry of Health, is a unit that deals with the inspections of the health sector, but due to the FDA authorization limits, it cannot inspect the studies in private laboratories. Holmes also took advantage of this opportunity, escaping himself from the controls. In short, the company; He said that we can do hundreds of tests with 1 drop of blood sample, and the FDA had to believe this statement with their hands tied.
A new player enters the company: Balwani
Ramesh Sunny Balwani joined Theranos Company in 2009 as COO. Balwani as COO; He became the number two person in the company. Balwani; Born in 1965, 56 years old Indian businessman. Balwani and Holmes; He met in China before Theranos. When Balwani met Holmes, he was a 37-year-old billionaire and Holmes was an excited 18-year-old girl. During this period, there was a short-term emotional relationship between them. It is possible that during this period Balwani made many promises to Holmes.
So, is there no truth-telling personnel in this company?
The question may come to your mind, “Is there not a brave man who will say, “People are being deceived here”? Holmes had thought of that too. This is exactly why the legal infrastructure of the company was entrusted to one of the most famous lawyers in the USA, David Boies. David Boies; He is particularly known for his victories in the “US Government v Microsoft”, and “gay sexual rights in US law” cases, and is known as the most influential lawyer in the USA. In other words, the legal infrastructure of Theranos was entrusted to a solid lawyer. David Boies had all the personnel in the company sign contracts with very heavy sanctions. In this contract, the personnel of the company expected huge penalties if the confidential information of the company was shared. So much so that the personnel were loaded with messages such as “rival companies and various states are after our technology”. In this way, the company’s dirty water always flowed inside and did not overflow outside. Again in this period, Balwani’s rigid structure, which was in a very important position in the company, was also effective. Indeed, Balwani; He was a boss known for the pressure he put on his employees.
Black box; you get too much attention
Over time, the product of Theranos began to be questioned by some quarters. Because information about the product was not shared and a black box was being watched. Finally, the first bullet was fired by John Carreyrou, the reckless journalist of the Wall Street Journal. Those who put this bullet in the barrel were Alan Beam, Tyler Shultz and Erika Cheung, former senior staff of Theranos. These three prominent names are; Leaving the company and sharing company secrets with Carreyrou despite a major legal sanction. In the information they shared, it was understood that “there is no such technology, everything is a hoax”.
After this news of Carreyrou, a very prestigious pen, things got mixed up. Your assays are not in the device produced by Theranos; It turned out that it was examined with Siemens brand device and traditional methods. The FDA immediately began to closely monitor the Therenos Company and banned blood test examinations as a first step. The value of the company, which saw 9 billion dollars in the stock market for a period, went down to zero.
Judicial process
The final decision on this fraud case that went down in history will be made by the US Judiciary. About the event; There are also those who argue that the architect of the event was Balwari, that after a point Holmes wanted to withdraw from the event, but continued because of Balwari’s threats, and that Balwari used Holmes as a puppet. It is claimed that this event is a good story for Hollywood and that the preparations for the screen side of the issue are made, and that even Jennifer Lawrence will play Holmes. Finally, HBO’s documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, which tells about Theranos Incident, stands out as a production worth watching.
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