Seattle1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 39,160
- Reaction score
- 408,030
CA, E Holmes & R Balwani (Theranos) June 2018 - Wire Fraud **MEDIA ONLY - NO DISCUSSION
- Thread starter Seattle1
- Start date
New Posts
-
Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #6 *Arrest*
- Latest: whinewiththegravy
Seattle1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 39,160
- Reaction score
- 408,030
Elizabeth Holmes’s Last Pitch
Sept 7, 2021
Over the course of what must have been several uncomfortable days for her in the summer of 2017, Elizabeth Holmes sat in a San Francisco conference room and answered questions asked by lawyers from the Securities and Exchange Commission. They were deposing her about her actions as the founder and CEO of Theranos, the once-lauded start-up that unraveled in spectacular fashion following a Wall Street Journal investigation revealing that it had lied to the world about its progress for years on a blood-testing technology.
In the deposition, Holmes attempted a transformation. She had ditched the black turtleneck that had once been her trademark (one that she had lifted from Steve Jobs) and wore more federal-investigation-appropriate attire — a collared, button-down shirt under a jacket. More ambitiously, Holmes, who had been the face of Theranos, claimed that she had not, in fact, been responsible for entire swathes of the company’s operations — its sales force, its financial projections, its pitches to investors, or its relationships with its largest customers, which, at one time, included Walgreens and Safeway. When asked about some of the company’s projections for its Walgreens business, Holmes said, “I don’t know what was behind these numbers and this model.” On another day, Holmes was asked about how other lab companies drew blood and answered, “I don’t know what other blood companies use,” seemingly indifferent to the notion that she might actually know what her competition was doing. At one point, following a series of answers from Holmes in this vein, a lawyer for the SEC asked, incredulously: “So what were you responsible for?”
It was not a successful strategy for Holmes four years ago — she ultimately settled with the agency for $500,000. But it is nonetheless one that she is likely to repurpose over the course of a federal criminal trial on wire fraud charges that begins in earnest this week in San Jose. In the days leading up to jury selection, previously sealed court records revealed that Holmes may attribute her involvement in the Theranos debacle to a decade-long, allegedly abusive relationship with her onetime boyfriend Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani — also the company’s president and chief operating officer, who is scheduled to go on trial separately early next year — and that she will likely take the stand in her defense.
[..]
Based on these allegations, the indictment charges Holmes and Balwani with 12 crimes, each counts either of wire fraud or conspiracy to commit it. The crime of wire fraud is essentially a scheme to obtain money or property from someone else through the use of materially false or misleading statements that also involves so-called “interstate wires,” which can be pretty much any kind of electronic communication from a phone call to an email to a bank transaction. The conspiracy, of course, is just the agreement — even an informal one — to commit that act.
[..]
In this case, the two conspiracy counts and the ten substantive counts are based largely on the same core conduct, but they offer a bunch of distinct pathways to a conviction for the government. It is clear that prosecutors intend to prove that Theranos’s business model was essentially a fraud — that they had not revolutionized blood testing and were nowhere close to doing so, despite having rolled out their services to the public. But if, for instance, all that they manage to do is convince the jury that Holmes and Balwani misled investors about Theranos’s relationship with Walgreens — that it was supposedly “expanding,” when, in fact, it had “stalled,” as the indictment alleges — that could yield multiple guilty verdicts by itself.
The various counts in the indictment also allow prosecutors to tell different parts of the Theranos story. Three of the government’s wire fraud counts, for instance, relate to results received by three different patients, each of whom will take the stand. This is testimony that a jury is likely to find highly sympathetic, and that Holmes fought vigorously — and unsuccessfully — to prevent. Ultimately, prosecutors plan to present testimony from approximately 11 patients who received faulty results, along with nine treating physicians.
[..]
Sept 7, 2021
Over the course of what must have been several uncomfortable days for her in the summer of 2017, Elizabeth Holmes sat in a San Francisco conference room and answered questions asked by lawyers from the Securities and Exchange Commission. They were deposing her about her actions as the founder and CEO of Theranos, the once-lauded start-up that unraveled in spectacular fashion following a Wall Street Journal investigation revealing that it had lied to the world about its progress for years on a blood-testing technology.
In the deposition, Holmes attempted a transformation. She had ditched the black turtleneck that had once been her trademark (one that she had lifted from Steve Jobs) and wore more federal-investigation-appropriate attire — a collared, button-down shirt under a jacket. More ambitiously, Holmes, who had been the face of Theranos, claimed that she had not, in fact, been responsible for entire swathes of the company’s operations — its sales force, its financial projections, its pitches to investors, or its relationships with its largest customers, which, at one time, included Walgreens and Safeway. When asked about some of the company’s projections for its Walgreens business, Holmes said, “I don’t know what was behind these numbers and this model.” On another day, Holmes was asked about how other lab companies drew blood and answered, “I don’t know what other blood companies use,” seemingly indifferent to the notion that she might actually know what her competition was doing. At one point, following a series of answers from Holmes in this vein, a lawyer for the SEC asked, incredulously: “So what were you responsible for?”
It was not a successful strategy for Holmes four years ago — she ultimately settled with the agency for $500,000. But it is nonetheless one that she is likely to repurpose over the course of a federal criminal trial on wire fraud charges that begins in earnest this week in San Jose. In the days leading up to jury selection, previously sealed court records revealed that Holmes may attribute her involvement in the Theranos debacle to a decade-long, allegedly abusive relationship with her onetime boyfriend Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani — also the company’s president and chief operating officer, who is scheduled to go on trial separately early next year — and that she will likely take the stand in her defense.
[..]
Based on these allegations, the indictment charges Holmes and Balwani with 12 crimes, each counts either of wire fraud or conspiracy to commit it. The crime of wire fraud is essentially a scheme to obtain money or property from someone else through the use of materially false or misleading statements that also involves so-called “interstate wires,” which can be pretty much any kind of electronic communication from a phone call to an email to a bank transaction. The conspiracy, of course, is just the agreement — even an informal one — to commit that act.
[..]
In this case, the two conspiracy counts and the ten substantive counts are based largely on the same core conduct, but they offer a bunch of distinct pathways to a conviction for the government. It is clear that prosecutors intend to prove that Theranos’s business model was essentially a fraud — that they had not revolutionized blood testing and were nowhere close to doing so, despite having rolled out their services to the public. But if, for instance, all that they manage to do is convince the jury that Holmes and Balwani misled investors about Theranos’s relationship with Walgreens — that it was supposedly “expanding,” when, in fact, it had “stalled,” as the indictment alleges — that could yield multiple guilty verdicts by itself.
The various counts in the indictment also allow prosecutors to tell different parts of the Theranos story. Three of the government’s wire fraud counts, for instance, relate to results received by three different patients, each of whom will take the stand. This is testimony that a jury is likely to find highly sympathetic, and that Holmes fought vigorously — and unsuccessfully — to prevent. Ultimately, prosecutors plan to present testimony from approximately 11 patients who received faulty results, along with nine treating physicians.
[..]
Seattle1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 39,160
- Reaction score
- 408,030
Yasmin Khorram
@YasminKhorram
Elizabeth Holmes arrives for first day of opening statements in her trial with her partner, Billy Evans and parents.
8:11 AM · Sep 8, 2021
Replying to
@YasminKhorram
Inside courthouse Elizabeth Holmes spotted embracing her mom, both letting out a big sigh.
8:27 AM · Sep 8, 2021
Replying to
@YasminKhorram
I went up to Billy Evans’ father outside courtroom and asked him whether he’s paying for his son and Elizabeth’s home on Green Gables. He was silent. BTW he was in court last week for jury selection, told reporters his name was “Hanson” claiming he was a “retired spectator.”
11:17 AM · Sep 8, 2021·
@YasminKhorram
Elizabeth Holmes arrives for first day of opening statements in her trial with her partner, Billy Evans and parents.
8:11 AM · Sep 8, 2021
Replying to
@YasminKhorram
Inside courthouse Elizabeth Holmes spotted embracing her mom, both letting out a big sigh.
8:27 AM · Sep 8, 2021
Replying to
@YasminKhorram
I went up to Billy Evans’ father outside courtroom and asked him whether he’s paying for his son and Elizabeth’s home on Green Gables. He was silent. BTW he was in court last week for jury selection, told reporters his name was “Hanson” claiming he was a “retired spectator.”
11:17 AM · Sep 8, 2021·
Seattle1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 39,160
- Reaction score
- 408,030
Replying to
@YasminKhorram
Courtroom sketch of Elizabeth Holmes today. Billy Evans, her mom, Noel Holmes, and Billy’s father, William Evans, on the right.
1:31 PM · Sep 8, 2021
@YasminKhorram
Courtroom sketch of Elizabeth Holmes today. Billy Evans, her mom, Noel Holmes, and Billy’s father, William Evans, on the right.
1:31 PM · Sep 8, 2021
Seattle1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 39,160
- Reaction score
- 408,030
Elizabeth Holmes' trial begins with opening statements - CNN
9/8/21
(CNN Business)Elizabeth Holmes and the US government faced off in a San Jose federal courtroom in the long-awaited criminal trial of the founder and former CEO of Theranos.
In opening arguments Wednesday, the government sought to convince jurors that the Stanford University dropout intended to mislead investors, patients, and doctors about the capabilities of her company and its proprietary blood testing technology in order to take their money as she found herself running out of time and resources to make the technology work.
"This is a case about fraud, about lying and cheating to get money," Robert Leach, the lead prosecutor, said in an opening statement. "Out of time and out of money, the defendant decided to mislead," Leach added.
[..]
"Elizabeth Holmes did not go to work every day intending to lie, cheat and steal. The government would have you believe her company, her entire life, is a fraud. That is wrong. That is not true," Lance Wade, an attorney for Holmes, said in opening remarks.
He described Holmes as "all in" on Theranos' mission of making testing cheaper and more accessible. "She worked herself to the bone for 15 years ... She poured her heart and her soul into that effort," he said. "In the end, Theranos failed and Ms. Holmes walked away with nothing. But failure is not a crime. Trying your hardest and coming up short is not a crime."
[..]
The defense has more of a tightrope to walk with jurors with its opening statement, according to legal experts. Holmes' camp will seek to "balance their desire to surprise the government ... and their desire to let the jury know that there is another side to the government's story," Nancy Gertner, a former US federal judge and senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, said before the opening arguments began.
But Holmes also has an "advantage," according to George Demos, a former Securities and Exchange Commission prosecutor and adjunct law professor at the UC Davis School of Law. "She only needs to convince one of the 12 jurors that, as a woman, she was subjected to a markedly different standard, and that failure in business does not automatically equate to fraudulent activity," he said.
[..]
The government's most recent list includes roughly 180 names, including former Theranos staffers: media mogul Rupert Murdoch, once reportedly the company's largest investor with more than $100 million; David Boies, the prominent attorney who was an investor, board member and legal defense for Holmes and Theranos for a time; as well as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and four-star general and future Defense Secretary James Mattis, both once board members. Patients who say they were affected by Theranos' inaccurate test results are also expected to testify.
Holmes' list, filed this week, includes several prosecutors on the case, as well as officials from the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Additionally, Bill Frist, the former Senate majority leader, Riley Bechtel, former chair of the construction giant, and Richard Kovacevich, the former Wells Fargo CEO, all once Theranos board members, are on her list. Reporter John Carreyrou, who broke the story of Theranos in 2015 for the Journal and subsequently wrote the best selling book "Bad Blood," is also on the list.
Both sides have indicated they have mountains of evidence to potentially introduce. The government's potential exhibit list runs nearly 240 pages and mentions correspondence between Holmes and Kissinger, emails from Murdoch to Holmes, and text messages between Holmes and Balwani. Holmes' filing runs nearly 60 pages and mentions emails from Balwani to Holmes, as well as numerous LinkedIn profiles and resumes.
[..]
The trial, which is closed to cameras, is expected to last roughly 13 weeks.
9/8/21
(CNN Business)Elizabeth Holmes and the US government faced off in a San Jose federal courtroom in the long-awaited criminal trial of the founder and former CEO of Theranos.
In opening arguments Wednesday, the government sought to convince jurors that the Stanford University dropout intended to mislead investors, patients, and doctors about the capabilities of her company and its proprietary blood testing technology in order to take their money as she found herself running out of time and resources to make the technology work.
"This is a case about fraud, about lying and cheating to get money," Robert Leach, the lead prosecutor, said in an opening statement. "Out of time and out of money, the defendant decided to mislead," Leach added.
[..]
"Elizabeth Holmes did not go to work every day intending to lie, cheat and steal. The government would have you believe her company, her entire life, is a fraud. That is wrong. That is not true," Lance Wade, an attorney for Holmes, said in opening remarks.
He described Holmes as "all in" on Theranos' mission of making testing cheaper and more accessible. "She worked herself to the bone for 15 years ... She poured her heart and her soul into that effort," he said. "In the end, Theranos failed and Ms. Holmes walked away with nothing. But failure is not a crime. Trying your hardest and coming up short is not a crime."
[..]
The defense has more of a tightrope to walk with jurors with its opening statement, according to legal experts. Holmes' camp will seek to "balance their desire to surprise the government ... and their desire to let the jury know that there is another side to the government's story," Nancy Gertner, a former US federal judge and senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, said before the opening arguments began.
But Holmes also has an "advantage," according to George Demos, a former Securities and Exchange Commission prosecutor and adjunct law professor at the UC Davis School of Law. "She only needs to convince one of the 12 jurors that, as a woman, she was subjected to a markedly different standard, and that failure in business does not automatically equate to fraudulent activity," he said.
[..]
The government's most recent list includes roughly 180 names, including former Theranos staffers: media mogul Rupert Murdoch, once reportedly the company's largest investor with more than $100 million; David Boies, the prominent attorney who was an investor, board member and legal defense for Holmes and Theranos for a time; as well as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and four-star general and future Defense Secretary James Mattis, both once board members. Patients who say they were affected by Theranos' inaccurate test results are also expected to testify.
Holmes' list, filed this week, includes several prosecutors on the case, as well as officials from the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Additionally, Bill Frist, the former Senate majority leader, Riley Bechtel, former chair of the construction giant, and Richard Kovacevich, the former Wells Fargo CEO, all once Theranos board members, are on her list. Reporter John Carreyrou, who broke the story of Theranos in 2015 for the Journal and subsequently wrote the best selling book "Bad Blood," is also on the list.
Both sides have indicated they have mountains of evidence to potentially introduce. The government's potential exhibit list runs nearly 240 pages and mentions correspondence between Holmes and Kissinger, emails from Murdoch to Holmes, and text messages between Holmes and Balwani. Holmes' filing runs nearly 60 pages and mentions emails from Balwani to Holmes, as well as numerous LinkedIn profiles and resumes.
[..]
The trial, which is closed to cameras, is expected to last roughly 13 weeks.
Seattle1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 39,160
- Reaction score
- 408,030
Elizabeth Holmes' Theranos trial starts today with opening arguments: What to know
Sept 8, 2021
In opening arguments of a trial set to last for months, Elizabeth Holmes' defense attorneys argued the failure of health care startup Theranos was due to "technical" shortcomings rather than deception on the part of its disgraced founder.
Holmes is charged with multiple counts of conspiracy and fraud over claims she made about the company's purportedly revolutionary blood-testing invention. Investigations revealed the technology had serious problems. In a few short years Theranos went from being valued at $9 billion to one of the decade's more notorious Silicon Valley stories.
[..]
Holmes' attorney Lance Wade told jurors in a San Jose courtroom that the story of Theranos' remarkable fall was "far more human and real, and oftentimes... complicated and boring," according to the Wall Street Journal.
The trial began Wednesday in a federal court presided over by US District Judge Edward Davila. A 12-member jury heard from the prosecution first, which argued that Holmes deceived investors.
"Out of time, out of money, Elizabeth Holmes decided to lie," assistant US attorney Robert Leach told the jury.
Defense attorneys later countered that Theranos investors were well aware of the risks involved in backing the startup.
[..]
But the fortunes of both Holmes and Theranos began to change in 2015 when The Wall Street Journal took a deeper look into the company. The Journal reported that only a small portion of tests were being done with the company's testing machine, named Edison, and that many tests were being run on other companies' machines, using diluted blood samples. The accuracy of test results that patients received from Theranos was also called into question.
All this led to the charges filed against Holmes in 2018, a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the permanent shuttering of Theranos shortly thereafter.
[..]
Holmes is formally charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 10 counts of wire fraud.
"The charges stem from [Holmes'] allegedly deceptive representations about [Theranos] and its medical testing technology," reads a statement from the US district court in Northern California.
Essentially, Holmes is accused of lying to patients about how the company's blood testing worked and how effective the tests were. Some of the charges also relate to Holmes allegedly misleading investors about the internal workings at Theranos and how much revenue the company was expected to generate.
If convicted, Holmes could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Sept 8, 2021
In opening arguments of a trial set to last for months, Elizabeth Holmes' defense attorneys argued the failure of health care startup Theranos was due to "technical" shortcomings rather than deception on the part of its disgraced founder.
Holmes is charged with multiple counts of conspiracy and fraud over claims she made about the company's purportedly revolutionary blood-testing invention. Investigations revealed the technology had serious problems. In a few short years Theranos went from being valued at $9 billion to one of the decade's more notorious Silicon Valley stories.
[..]
Holmes' attorney Lance Wade told jurors in a San Jose courtroom that the story of Theranos' remarkable fall was "far more human and real, and oftentimes... complicated and boring," according to the Wall Street Journal.
The trial began Wednesday in a federal court presided over by US District Judge Edward Davila. A 12-member jury heard from the prosecution first, which argued that Holmes deceived investors.
"Out of time, out of money, Elizabeth Holmes decided to lie," assistant US attorney Robert Leach told the jury.
Defense attorneys later countered that Theranos investors were well aware of the risks involved in backing the startup.
[..]
But the fortunes of both Holmes and Theranos began to change in 2015 when The Wall Street Journal took a deeper look into the company. The Journal reported that only a small portion of tests were being done with the company's testing machine, named Edison, and that many tests were being run on other companies' machines, using diluted blood samples. The accuracy of test results that patients received from Theranos was also called into question.
All this led to the charges filed against Holmes in 2018, a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the permanent shuttering of Theranos shortly thereafter.
[..]
Holmes is formally charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 10 counts of wire fraud.
"The charges stem from [Holmes'] allegedly deceptive representations about [Theranos] and its medical testing technology," reads a statement from the US district court in Northern California.
Essentially, Holmes is accused of lying to patients about how the company's blood testing worked and how effective the tests were. Some of the charges also relate to Holmes allegedly misleading investors about the internal workings at Theranos and how much revenue the company was expected to generate.
If convicted, Holmes could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Seattle1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 39,160
- Reaction score
- 408,030
Become an FT subscriber to read | Financial Times
9/8/2021
In a California courtroom, the trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes boiled down to two competing arguments: did she lie and cheat to make money, as prosecutors alleged, or did she simply fail to deliver on an ambitious vision to reinvent blood testing?
[..]
The trial will resume on Friday and legal analysts said it could boil down to a notoriously tricky concept: the Theranos founder’s state of mind and whether she believed her own hype, despite evidence to the contrary. “It is one of the hardest things that the legal system has to deal with, because there really isn’t a way of reading somebody’s mind,” said Jessica Roth, a professor at Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York and a former federal prosecutor.
‘Misleading statements’ Prosecutors laid out five categories of “misleading statements” Holmes allegedly promoted: those related to Theranos’s proprietary testing device; its military contracts; pharmaceutical work; financial health; and its partnership with Walgreens, the US pharmacy group.
Citing a series of supporting examples, prosecutors sought to portray Holmes as repeatedly lying about the status of her business, allowing her to successfully raise hundreds of millions of dollars and be dubbed the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire.
“The defendant’s false and misleading statements were enormously successful,” said Robert Leach, assistant US attorney. At one point, prosecutors alleged, Holmes presented investors with a forged, laudatory report supposedly representing the company’s work with Pfizer.
“As you will hear, Pfizer did not write this. Pfizer did not put its logo on this. Pfizer did not give its permission to put its logo on this,” Leach said, adding that the pharmaceutical company had actually reached the opposite conclusions.
[..]
Leach said in his opening statement that Theranos had at one point in 2013 been burning through $1m-$2m a week as its cash balances dwindled to $15m, while the company’s scientists were warning about the reliability of its proprietary technology. “Out of time and out of money, the defendants decided to mislead,” Leach said.
The prosecution’s first witness, Theranos’s former financial controller So Han Spivey, testified that as early as 2009, the company was so cash-strapped it began selectively paying different vendors.
[..]
Prosecutors told jurors they would hear from employees as well as “outsiders”, including representatives from healthcare companies that had worked with Theranos.
Former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff, one of the prosecution’s most important witnesses, also featured prominently in the defence team’s arguments, which attempted to show that Holmes relied on her scientific professionals to validate the company’s tests.
[..]
Lance Wade, a defence attorney, described Holmes walking out of the Theranos office for the last time in 2018 as “her last day devoted to a dream that she had spent nearly half of her life, her entire adult life, pursuing”.
Wade stressed that Holmes had believed in the promise of her company but its failure did not constitute a crime. “The evidence is going to show you she did her level best day in and day out to make Theranos successful, and she genuinely deeply believed it would be successful,” he said.
[..]
The defence also argued that Holmes did not actually get rich from Theranos.
Wade acknowledged that Holmes owned about half of Theranos, giving her a stake worth billions of dollars at the company’s peak, when investors valued it at $9bn.
But Holmes never took the opportunity to turn her paper wealth into actual dollars by selling shares. “She passed on every opportunity to sell,” he said.
9/8/2021
In a California courtroom, the trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes boiled down to two competing arguments: did she lie and cheat to make money, as prosecutors alleged, or did she simply fail to deliver on an ambitious vision to reinvent blood testing?
[..]
The trial will resume on Friday and legal analysts said it could boil down to a notoriously tricky concept: the Theranos founder’s state of mind and whether she believed her own hype, despite evidence to the contrary. “It is one of the hardest things that the legal system has to deal with, because there really isn’t a way of reading somebody’s mind,” said Jessica Roth, a professor at Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York and a former federal prosecutor.
‘Misleading statements’ Prosecutors laid out five categories of “misleading statements” Holmes allegedly promoted: those related to Theranos’s proprietary testing device; its military contracts; pharmaceutical work; financial health; and its partnership with Walgreens, the US pharmacy group.
Citing a series of supporting examples, prosecutors sought to portray Holmes as repeatedly lying about the status of her business, allowing her to successfully raise hundreds of millions of dollars and be dubbed the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire.
“The defendant’s false and misleading statements were enormously successful,” said Robert Leach, assistant US attorney. At one point, prosecutors alleged, Holmes presented investors with a forged, laudatory report supposedly representing the company’s work with Pfizer.
“As you will hear, Pfizer did not write this. Pfizer did not put its logo on this. Pfizer did not give its permission to put its logo on this,” Leach said, adding that the pharmaceutical company had actually reached the opposite conclusions.
[..]
Leach said in his opening statement that Theranos had at one point in 2013 been burning through $1m-$2m a week as its cash balances dwindled to $15m, while the company’s scientists were warning about the reliability of its proprietary technology. “Out of time and out of money, the defendants decided to mislead,” Leach said.
The prosecution’s first witness, Theranos’s former financial controller So Han Spivey, testified that as early as 2009, the company was so cash-strapped it began selectively paying different vendors.
[..]
Prosecutors told jurors they would hear from employees as well as “outsiders”, including representatives from healthcare companies that had worked with Theranos.
Former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff, one of the prosecution’s most important witnesses, also featured prominently in the defence team’s arguments, which attempted to show that Holmes relied on her scientific professionals to validate the company’s tests.
[..]
Lance Wade, a defence attorney, described Holmes walking out of the Theranos office for the last time in 2018 as “her last day devoted to a dream that she had spent nearly half of her life, her entire adult life, pursuing”.
Wade stressed that Holmes had believed in the promise of her company but its failure did not constitute a crime. “The evidence is going to show you she did her level best day in and day out to make Theranos successful, and she genuinely deeply believed it would be successful,” he said.
[..]
The defence also argued that Holmes did not actually get rich from Theranos.
Wade acknowledged that Holmes owned about half of Theranos, giving her a stake worth billions of dollars at the company’s peak, when investors valued it at $9bn.
But Holmes never took the opportunity to turn her paper wealth into actual dollars by selling shares. “She passed on every opportunity to sell,” he said.
Seattle1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 39,160
- Reaction score
- 408,030
Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Live Updates
Sept 8, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Live Updates
Last Updated: Sep 8, 2021 at 7:34 pm ET
Lawyers delivered opening statements in the highly anticipated criminal trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who faces federal charges of defrauding patients and investors with claims of revolutionary blood-testing technology. Follow the latest developments.
Sept 8, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Live Updates
Last Updated: Sep 8, 2021 at 7:34 pm ET
Lawyers delivered opening statements in the highly anticipated criminal trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who faces federal charges of defrauding patients and investors with claims of revolutionary blood-testing technology. Follow the latest developments.
Seattle1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 39,160
- Reaction score
- 408,030
[URL='https://twitter.com/YasminKhorram']Yasmin Khorram@YasminKhorram[/URL]
It’s a little, I don’t want to say ominous, but it’s of concern that before we finish the first witness we have an issue.” Elizabeth Holmes trial delayed after juror potentially exposed to Covid:
Elizabeth Holmes trial delayed after juror potentially exposed to Covid
The fraud trial of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes came to a grinding halt when a juror disclosed to the court that he had been potentially exposed to Covid and was awaiting test results.
cnbc.com
4:57 PM · Sep 9, 2021·
Seattle1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 39,160
- Reaction score
- 408,030
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/14/eli...pshare|com.apple.UIKit.activity.PostToTwitter
9/14/21
On Tuesday, the government’s first witness at Holmes’ fraud trial, longtime Theranos financial controller San Ho Spivey, who also goes by Danise Yam, testified in detail about the actual state of the company’s financial condition.
According to Yam, Theranos had net losses of $16.2 million in 2010, $27.2 million in 2011, $57 million in 2012 and $92 million in 2013. Yam testified the company made no revenue in 2012 and 2013, adding that the company was burning through $2 million per week in 2013 and “cash started to get a bit tight.”
Yam testified that by 2015 Theranos had accumulated losses of $585 million, according to tax documents. Despite that, prosecutors pointed to a document given to investors that forecasted revenue for 2014 as $140 million and revenue for 2015 as $990 million. Yam said she did not prepare this document.
“Did you ever provide financial projections to investors?” asked Robert Leach, an assistant U.S. attorney. “No,” replied Yam.
During cross-examination, defense attorneys pointed to a document in which Theranos was valued at either $9.5 billion or $1.69 billion depending on the methodology. Lance Wade, an attorney for Holmes, quizzed Spivey on other companies that suffered big losses during the 2009 financial crisis.
Yam testified that Holmes never sold a share she owned nor did she process any stock sale.
Holmes is facing a dozen counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with misleading investors and patients about Theranos’ technology. She has pled not guilty. Her long-awaited criminal fraud trial kicked off last week in San Jose. In opening statements, Holmes’ defense team portrayed her as an ambitious young woman who truly wanted to revolutionize health care.
9/14/21
On Tuesday, the government’s first witness at Holmes’ fraud trial, longtime Theranos financial controller San Ho Spivey, who also goes by Danise Yam, testified in detail about the actual state of the company’s financial condition.
According to Yam, Theranos had net losses of $16.2 million in 2010, $27.2 million in 2011, $57 million in 2012 and $92 million in 2013. Yam testified the company made no revenue in 2012 and 2013, adding that the company was burning through $2 million per week in 2013 and “cash started to get a bit tight.”
Yam testified that by 2015 Theranos had accumulated losses of $585 million, according to tax documents. Despite that, prosecutors pointed to a document given to investors that forecasted revenue for 2014 as $140 million and revenue for 2015 as $990 million. Yam said she did not prepare this document.
“Did you ever provide financial projections to investors?” asked Robert Leach, an assistant U.S. attorney. “No,” replied Yam.
During cross-examination, defense attorneys pointed to a document in which Theranos was valued at either $9.5 billion or $1.69 billion depending on the methodology. Lance Wade, an attorney for Holmes, quizzed Spivey on other companies that suffered big losses during the 2009 financial crisis.
Yam testified that Holmes never sold a share she owned nor did she process any stock sale.
Holmes is facing a dozen counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with misleading investors and patients about Theranos’ technology. She has pled not guilty. Her long-awaited criminal fraud trial kicked off last week in San Jose. In opening statements, Holmes’ defense team portrayed her as an ambitious young woman who truly wanted to revolutionize health care.
Seattle1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 39,160
- Reaction score
- 408,030
Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Live Updates
9/14/21
10 hours ago
Erika Cheung Joined Theranos Excited, Quit Disillusioned
By Sara Randazzo
When Erika Cheung went to a University of California-Berkeley job fair, the line stretched out the door to talk to Theranos Inc.’s recruiter.
"It was the most popular booth," she said during the start of her highly anticipated testimony at the criminal-fraud trial of the blood-testing startup’s founder Elizabeth Holmes.
Ms. Cheung told jurors that she waited in line to give her resume to Theranos, and joined the company in October 2013. She said she interviewed with Ms. Holmes once before she was hired and was "star struck" by the entrepreneur she'd read so much about.
"It appeared to be a very exciting technology," Ms. Cheung said during questioning from assistant U.S. attorney John Bostic.
Asked why she left the company half a year later, she said she resigned because she didn't think the company's technology was ready to process patient samples.
In 2015, Ms. Cheung wrote a nearly 1,800-word letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services alleging that Theranos ignored standards for staff credentials, frequently used expired lab supplies and that its proprietary testing devices had “major stability, precision and accuracy problems.”
9/14/21
10 hours ago
Erika Cheung Joined Theranos Excited, Quit Disillusioned
By Sara Randazzo
When Erika Cheung went to a University of California-Berkeley job fair, the line stretched out the door to talk to Theranos Inc.’s recruiter.
"It was the most popular booth," she said during the start of her highly anticipated testimony at the criminal-fraud trial of the blood-testing startup’s founder Elizabeth Holmes.
Ms. Cheung told jurors that she waited in line to give her resume to Theranos, and joined the company in October 2013. She said she interviewed with Ms. Holmes once before she was hired and was "star struck" by the entrepreneur she'd read so much about.
"It appeared to be a very exciting technology," Ms. Cheung said during questioning from assistant U.S. attorney John Bostic.
Asked why she left the company half a year later, she said she resigned because she didn't think the company's technology was ready to process patient samples.
In 2015, Ms. Cheung wrote a nearly 1,800-word letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services alleging that Theranos ignored standards for staff credentials, frequently used expired lab supplies and that its proprietary testing devices had “major stability, precision and accuracy problems.”