Once compared to the likes of Steve Jobs, Elizabeth Holmes is now a convicted felon guilty of 4 wired frauds out of 11 charges.
HIGHLIGHTS —
- Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes convicted of fooling investors and public for more than a decade to pull off money for the corporation.
- The jury of eight men and four women in California found Holmes guilty for lying about her blood testing devise.
- Holmes now face up to 20 years of imprisonment and $3 million in fines.
- The high-profile fraud case reveals the ravenous greed culture of Silicon Valley, glamorizing abnormal money and fame at young age.
After the most scandalous month-long trial of Silicon Valley in California, Founder of Theranos Elizabeth Holmes has been convicted guilty for 4 out of 11 fraud charges against her. According to Prosecutors, the 37 years old entrepreneur lied about the blood-testing technology of her startup to dupe investors into putting money. Holmes can face 20 years in federal prison for the four charges she has been found guilty of.
For the other four charges, Holmes was found not guilty while the jury could not reach a verdict on the remaining three charges. The case has not only shook the world, it has also lifted veil from the greed culture of Silicon Valley where businesses can go to lengths for fame, money and success.
Once the leading star and exemplary businesswoman of 21st century, Holmes has hit the rock bottom after dropping out from Stanford to build a $9 billion health-tech corporation.
So what exactly went wrong with the very promising Elizabeth Holmes and her billion dollar corporation? Let’s find out.
The Fall Of Decade-long Lie- Charges Elizabeth Holmes Has Been Convicted For
The Silicon Valley was in awe when Elizabeth Holmes founded a high-profile health-tech firm at the age 19. She even drew comparison to Steve Jobs for his innovation and unmatchable work ethics. Everything seemed to be in favor of Holmes’ success until the world discovered that she was lying to investors and public since a decade.
The former CEO of Theranos lied that the company has built revolutionery technology that can detect any disease with just a drop of blood. Things started going south when in 2018, media and regulatory authorities discovered that the company was nowhere near achieving the results that its technology promises. The well-planned large scale fraud not only led to hundreds of million duped by investors but also faulty patient tests.
Holmes was then charged of nine wire fraud and two charges for conspiring to commit the wire fraud.
In an interview with Tech Nation in 2005, Holmes said that the Theranos’s device was in “the production phase.” She added, “We hope to release it, actually, to a pharmaceutical partner around mid-to-late this year.”
Theranos dissolved 13 years later without manufacturing even a single device.
What’s next for Founder of Theranos Elizabeth Holmes?
The high-profile trial in California held testimony for four months with 32 witnesses and days of jury delibration. After falling from glory, Holmes can now face upto 20 years in prison along with $3 million in fines.
However, it is unlikely that she will spend the entire term behind the bars.
“I suspect she may get five to seven years in prison,” Justin Paperny, founder of White Collar Advice told Fortune.
Holmes might be eligible for 15% reduction in sentence for the good behavior and is also expected to appeal. She is highly likely to appeal in the court and for the days the appeal remain pending, Holmes will not go to jail. This can even take months.
“There is no real mechanism to really aggressively advance your release date in federal prison,” said Paperny.
The excessively glamourized “achieve the impossible” culture of Silicon Valley has come to the dark light with Holmes’ case. The desire to achieve extraordinary career graph in abnormally young age is what drove Theranos’ founder to the verge of committing crime.
Weeks ago, Holmes’ lawyer revealed her merciless self-improvement plan that she followed everyday to uplift the company from the ugly failure-
The handwritten memo reveals how Elizabeth was turning herself into a machine to get to the stature where the likes of Zuckerberg and Bezos are in the Silicon Valley. And while there is nothing wrong with aiming big, there is definitely a huge problem in glamorizing the “top or nothing” culture of the 21st century business world where billion and trillion dollar capitalizations are going mainstream.
