Elizabeth Holmes is a name everyone in silicon valley is aware of. What started out as a revolutionary-sounding idea, turned out to be one of the biggest scams of the 21st century. Now Holmes is a nobody who has received more than 11 years in prison for the Theranos scam.
Her story has been the subject of extensive media attention and analysis. Recently, Holmes’ story was adapted into a critically acclaimed web series. Let’s find out in detail who she was and what is the fuss about the Theranos scam that led to her going behind bars.
Who Is Elizabeth Holmes?
Born on February 3, 1984, in Washington, D.C, Holmes’ father was the vice president at Enron, an energy company that later went bankrupt because of an accounting fraud scandal.
Her mother, Noel Anne was a Congressional committee staffer. In 2003, Holmes started Theranos, a now-defunct health technology company. It skyrocketed in valuation after they claimed to have revolutionized blood testing by developing methods to test blood from just a fingerprick quantity of blood.
Holmes also claimed to get the test results in no time and this gave her immense success. By 2015, she was named the youngest and wealthiest self-made female American billionaire.
It was evaluated on the basis of her $9-billion worth company. However, things would change drastically for her in the following year.
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What Is The Theranos Scam?
In 2016, revelations of potential fraud about Theranos’s claims started to surface. Several journalistic and regulatory investigations revealed that she was misleading the investors and the government.
Further investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Theranos and Holmes with deceiving investors by “massive fraud” through false claims about the blood-testing technology. It turns out, it was all a lie and Theranos never had the said technology.
In 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Holmes on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On Friday, a federal judge sentenced her to more than 11 years in prison for duping investors.
Around 2016, it was revealed that Holmes also used a fake baritone to influence people and command authority. Her story was recently adapted into a Hulu series.
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