31 May 2023, Bengaluru, India
Elizabeth Holmes, a former US biotech celebrity, is scheduled to report to jail today to start serving an 11-year sentence for scamming investors with her Silicon Valley startup company Theranos. The entrepreneur was given a sentence of more than 11 years in prison and was also required to repay $452 million to dozens of prominent investors that she and her former business partner Ramesh Sunny Balwani cheated.
The mother of two, 39-year-old Holmes, is scheduled to arrive at the all-female prison camp in Bryan, Texas, about 100 miles outside of Houston, today.
Ramesh Sunny Balwani, her ex-boyfriend and the former chief operating officer of Theranos, was also found guilty of fraud and reported to prison in California last month to start serving his term, according to CNN.
She won’t be able to just file for bankruptcy and get rid of her debts; experts told BBC. Seizing her assets, including cash in the bank and real estate, has likely already started on the part of the prosecution.
As a consequence of a Wall Street Journal investigation, the creator of Theranos was found guilty on four charges of defrauding investors over 15 years when she had developed a game-changing medical technology. The conviction came in January 2022.
Notably, prominent businessmen, including Rupert Murdoch, the Walton family, and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos invested in the company. Even magazine covers heralded her as the next digital visionary, and she amassed mountains of investor money. However, everything fell apart when Wall Street Journal research proved that robots could not perform as promised.
By stating that Theranos Inc.’s technology could perform numerous tests with just one drop of blood from a finger prick, she is accused of deceiving investors between 2010 and 2015. In the end, Theranos was shut down in September 2018. Rupert Murdoch has demanded payment in full for the $125 million he put into her unsuccessful start-up.
Despite being accused of lying about Theranos, Ms. Holmes maintained that the company’s lab directors were in charge of test quality in her plea of not guilty. She expressed her regret to Theranos’ staff members, investors, and clients before it was revealed that she would be sentenced in November 2022.
I cherished Theranos. My life’s labor was that. The folks I most loved and admired were the ones I attempted to get connected with at Theranos. I’m crushed by my shortcomings. I’m truly sorry. I sacrificed everything I had to establish and maintain our business. Every cell in my body cries out in regret for my shortcomings.
At the age of 19, Ms. Holmes started Theranos in 2003. Her net worth was reported by Forbes magazine to be $4.5 billion in 2015. The company had formerly been valued at $9 billion.
[Source: ndtv.com]
