Elizabeth Holmes trial Week 9 recap: The Kissinger connection, and a former lab co-director cites a 'lack of clarity'

The fraud trial against Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, has ended for the ninth week.
It also included testimony on investments made by Henry Kissinger, DeVos' family and Walmart's heirs.

This is the complete trial's ninth week.

Receive the most recent tech news and innovations every day directly to your inbox Loading Click Sign up to receive marketing emails and other offers from Insider.

Theranos investor: There was not much transparency

Chris Lucas, Black Diamond Ventures founder/Managing Director, stated to the jury that he had invested approximately $1.5 million in Theranos in 2006. He also made another $5.4 million in 2013, according The New York Times. Although he said that the initial investment in Theranos was risky as it was still in its infancy, he stated that "you would expect to have higher certainty of return" in 2013.

Lucas also stated that there wasn't a lot transparency into the now-defunct startup. He said that he invested because he had a good relationship with Holmes who he claims was his main source of information about his company.

Ex-lab director was "increasingly uneasy" and "lack of clarity".

Lynette Sawyer was Theranos' former laboratory director. Sunil Dhawan was the dermatologist of Ramesh Balwani, former Theranos president and COO. Dhawan testified previously that he did not know that Sawyer was also working for Theranos.

Sawyer, who worked for Theranos between 2014 and 2015, stated that she was not invited to the lab, had never spoken with her codirector, and had never met Holmes.

According to The Wall Street Journal, she said that she became increasingly uneasy with the way things were being done. "I was very unhappy with the lack of clarity around the lab."

Sawyer stated that a lot of her job involved signing documents regarding commercially available analyzer tests; she never reviewed data from Theranos analyzers.

The investor network connection

According to The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Mosley, an estate attorney whose clients included Henry Kissinger, former US secretary-of-state, testified that Holmes was introduced to clients such as the DeVos and Cox families. These families collectively invested hundreds and millions of dollars into the now-defunct startup. Kissinger invested $3million, while Mosley invested $6 million. He had unanswered queries and believed that it was possible to lose all of your money.

Problem with another validation report

Constance Cullen was a former director of the bioanalytical laboratory at Schering-Plough and testified that she assisted in evaluating Theranos' technology. Cullen stated that she was dissatisfied with Holmes' answers to her questions in a 2009 meeting. The jury was shown Schering-Plough’s logo in a report that seemed to validate Theranos' technology. However, Cullen stated that neither she nor anyone else at Theranos believed the report to be accurate according to The New York Times.

She echoes Shane Weber's testimony, a former scientist at Pfizer, who recently stated that he did not authorize Theranos to use the Pfizer logo in a validation report. He also said that he didn't know of any other Pfizer employees who might have done it.

One victory for defense

Holmes was granted a minor victory by Judge Edward Davila, who granted her request to exclude testimony of a patient named in court documents "B.B." So far, only one patient has testified in the trial.

Catch up on Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 7 and Week 6 here. Here's how Holmes ended up in court and the list of possible witnesses. You can find all the information you need about this case here.