Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, guilty of defrauding investors in USA
A US federal jury found Elizabeth Holmes guilty of four of eleven fraud charges. Each charge carries up to 20 years in prison and fines of $250,000.
Jury convicts Elizabeth Holmes of conspiracy to defraud Theranos investors
A US federal jury declared Elizabeth Holmes, founder of blood analysis company Theranos, guilty on Monday of four of the eleven fraud charges she faced for massive fraud, according to rtve.es. The verdict came after seven days of deliberations by the twelve jurors—eight men and four women.
Holmes was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud Theranos investors and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The jury acquitted her of four other charges and failed to reach consensus on the remaining three. The charges relating to the alleged deception of patients over the reliability of the tests were also dismissed.
Each guilty verdict carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of approximately $250,000. Holmes could also be ordered to repay money to those who were defrauded.
On Monday morning, the jurors had informed federal judge Edward Dávila that they remained divided on three of the charges.
Holmes, 37, rose to prominence in Silicon Valley for claiming to have developed technology capable of performing complex blood analyses from one or two drops extracted from the patient's finger, at a cost of up to a quarter that of conventional medical tests. Comparisons with Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, became commonplace in the business world.
Her company, Theranos, was founded in 2003 and quickly attracted the interest of numerous investors, making Holmes a multimillionaire at 31 years old. The Walgreens pharmacy chain even partnered with Theranos to offer its tests in establishments in California and Arizona.
The collapse began in late 2015, when The Wall Street Journal published a series of investigative reports questioning the validity of Theranos analyses and accusing the company of diluting patient blood samples to increase their volume. The revelations led the US Department of Justice to bring charges against Holmes and against Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, the company's former president and former chief operating officer and Holmes's former romantic partner, accusing them of having deceived investors, doctors and patients. Theranos dissolved in September 2018.
Source: Google News ES — Crime (es)