Elizabeth Holmes.Photo: Yichuan Cao/Getty Images
A federal jury in California foundElizabeth Holmesguilty of fraud and conspiracy on Monday.
Holmes, the subject of an HBO documentary as well asa forthcoming Hulu miniseriesstarring Amanda Seyfried, had been charged with 11 counts of fraud for claims made to investors and patients of her Silicon Valley blood-testing company, Theranos.
The jury handed down a partial verdict on Monday, finding Holmes guilty of four of the 11 charges – three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
She was found not guilty of an additional four. The jury remained deadlocked on the other three counts, according toThe New York Times.
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Holmes now faces a federal prison sentence of up to 20 years. Her sentencing will come at a later date. The federal government also must decide whether to retry Holmes for the three counts on which the jury could not reach a verdict.
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In 2015,Wall Street Journaljournalist John Carreyrou reported that the machine Holmes was selling — dubbed The Edison — did not actually work, and that the company was using outside technology and other subterfuge to fake positive test results. Federal authorities then investigated Holmes, indicting her in 2018.
During her trial, Holmes' defense attorneys sought to portray her as naïve, saying she didn’t mean to defraud investors.According to ABC, Holmes' attorney Kevin Downey said Holmes never cashed out any stock even as the company’s fortunes tumbled.
Elizabeth Holmes.David Orrell/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
“You know that at the first sign of trouble, crooks cash out, criminals cover up, and rats leave a fleeing ship,” Downey said during his closing argument. “She didn’t do any of them.”
But prosecutors said Holmes knew exactly what she was doing.
“The person on trial is 37 years old,” U.S. Attorney John Bostic said in his closing arguments,The Wall Street Journalreports. “That is certainly old enough to know the difference between right and wrong.”
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In addition to accusations she misled patients and physicians about the efficacy of Theranos' blood tests, Holmes was also accused of lying to investors in 2015, telling them that Theranos would generate $1 billion in revenue when she allegedly knew the company would only generate a few hundred thousand dollars that year.
Born in Washington, D.C., to an Enron executive father and a mother who worked as a staff member on a congressional committee, Holmes spent the majority of her youth in Houston, Texas. Holmes studied chemical engineering at Stanford University, but never earned a degree, dropping out in 2003 to launch Theranos.
Elizabeth Holmes.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Theranos investors included National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis
Holmes testified in her own defense, saying her judgment was clouded during the time in question because of the alleged sexual, psychological and emotional abuse she endured during her relationship with former Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her ex-boyfriend and co-defendant,NBC reports.
Balwani faces the same fraud and conspiracy charges Holmes faced but will be tried separately in January.
source: people.com
