In 2014, Elizabeth Holmes soared high. Only 30 years old, she had built up the company Theranos, which was valued at nine billion dollars.
The company promised that they would revolutionize the way disease could be detected. They claimed they had developed a test that could take over 200 blood samples with one drop of blood. The “Edison test” should be able to detect, among other things, cancer, HIV, and diabetes, and the promises attracted sugar-rich investors such as Henry Kissinger and Rupert Murdoch.
– Elizabeth Holmes in 2015 – shortly before the house of cards began to collapse. REUTERS Photo: Brendan Mcdermid
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Holmes was hailed. Some referred to her as the “new Steve Jobs”. Forbes magazine described her as the world’s youngest female “self-made” billionaire, and she was invited to Bill Clinton to discuss local life issues with Jack Ma.
Lies came to the surface
One year later, the empire began to crack.
The Edison test proved to be worthless. It could not detect any diseases, and stories of cheating, lies and deception began to surface.
According to the indictment Holmes knew that the test failed to detect disease, but she continued to promote the product, undermining information about the missing results. Between 2015 and 2018, the scandal grew, and eventually the company completely collapsed.
Both Holmes and her then-boyfriend and business partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, were charged with 12 counts of fraud. They risk 20 years in prison if found guilty.
The big unanswered question is why Holmes invested so much in a technology she allegedly knew was not going to work.
– Holmes’ ex-girlfriend and business partner, Ramesh Balwani, is also charged with the same 12 counts. His case comes up in January 2022. l Photo: Justin Sullivan
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Elizabeth Holmes is now 37 years old. according to the indictment should Holmes and Balwani, lied to both investors, doctors and patients.
In 2019, she was released on bail and she married a man ten years younger. They had a child together in July this year.
Huge attention
On Tuesday, the jury selection began for the upcoming trial in San Jose, California. It is expected that the opening speeches will be held on 8 September.
Holmes has never told her side of the case, but it is believed that she will plead not guilty when the trial begins, according to the news agency AP.
The gigantic fall from being a young successful multibillionaire, to sitting on the dock, arouses interest around the world, and documentaries have been made, books written and a TV series about the case are on the way.
The attention was even greater when court documents were published last week.
Accusations of ill-treatment
It appears that the defenders claim that Holme’s ex-boyfriend and partner, Balwani, abused her sexually, emotionally and mentally, and was very controlling. The defense will claim that this went beyond Holmes’ ability to make decisions.
Balwani reacts strongly to the accusations, calling them hair-raising.
It is up to the jury to decide who they believe in. It is expected that Holmes himself will testify in the case. Balwani’s case will not come up in court until January 2022.
– Former President Bill Clinton in conversation with Elizabeth Holmes and one of the world’s richest men, the founder of the Alibaba Group, Jack Ma, during the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting in New York. September 2015. REUTERS / Photo: Brendan Mcdermid
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Ambitious family
Elizabeth Holmes comes from a wealthy home in Washington DC. Both parents worked on Capitol Hill. According to those who knew Holmes as a child, she was polite but shy.
Forbes has interviewed a psychiatrist who has known Elizabeth Holmes since she was a child. Richard Fuisz was a neighbor of the Holmes family and says that it was a family that was concerned with status and building networks.
When Elizabeth was nine years old, she must have written a letter to her father and told her that she wanted in life to discover something new that humanity did not know was possible.
Elizabeth started at the prestigious Stanford University in 2002. According to Fuisz, it was her parents who arranged a place for her there through some back doors.
She studied at Stanford to become a chemical engineer. In a school project, she worked out an idea for a patch that would release antibiotics when needed.
– Convinced of his own genius
When she received feedback from one of the pharmacy teachers, Phyllis Gardner, that the patch would never work, she rejected the criticism.
– She was completely convinced of her own genius. She was not interested in my expertise at all. It was quite outrageous, Gardner says BBC.
Only a few months later she quit. She was only 19 years old and instead focused on establishing Theranos. Impressively, she managed to get a number of rich investors to believe in her idea until 2015 when the entire foundation of the company turned out not to hold up.
Was scammed by her husband
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