The image is from David Odisho's photo.
A jury found Elizabeth Holmes guilty of three counts of wire fraud for lying to investors about the capabilities of the blood testing technology at Theranos. She was also guilty of conspiracy to defraud investors.
She could face 20 years in prison for each of the counts. She was found not guilty of two counts of defrauding patients and of conspiracy to defraud patients. There were three more counts of fraud that the jury did not return a verdict on.
The founder and CEO of Theranos, a company that promised to change the way blood testing is done, was also the man who created the device that could run hundreds of medical tests on a few drops of blood. At one point, the company was valued at more than $9 billion.
The Wall Street Journal exposed major problems with Theranos tech, and federal investigations found problems that jeopardized patient safety at its labs. The company closed its labs in 2016 and Balwani was charged with wire fraud and conspiracy in federal court. The US government is accusing Theranos of deceiving investors and the public about the reliability of their blood testing technology.
The trial was delayed for months because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, but started in September and ended in November. The testimony was slowed down by jurors being dismissed, a burst pipe, and lectures from the judge about loud typing in the gallery. Over two dozen witnesses testified, and she spent seven days on the stand in her defense.
During her testimony, she said she didn't try to tell investors what the program was capable of. She blamed others at the company for any mistakes and said investors misinterpreted her statements about Theranos. The jury heard recordings and saw videos of her lying about what types of blood tests the company could do, as well as her admitting to adding logos from pharmaceutical companies to the lab reports.
To find her guilty of fraud, the jury had to be unanimous in their belief that she knew the information she gave to investors and patients was false and that she used it to get them to give money to Theranos.
The fraud trial for Balwani is set to begin in February.
