The founder of blood testing startup Theranos will go down in history as the woman who took Silicon Valley by storm, leaving financial disaster in her wake. A California jury added another line to the biography of a company executive who was guilty of so many crimes.
The jury found her guilty on four of the 11 counts she was accused of. The guilty counts were related to wire fraud or conspiracy to commit wire fraud against the investors of Theranos, who invested hundreds of millions of dollars to back the small, portable medical devices the company claimed could run countless medical tests using a single drop of patients' blood. The devices didn't work.
The jury found her not guilty on four counts related to the matter. There were three wire fraud charges against investors that it could not reach a decision on.
The jury's decisions on all counts can be seen below.
1. A conspiracy to commit wire fraud against Theranos investors is guilty.
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2. A conspiracy to commit wire fraud against Theranos is not guilty.
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3. Alan Jay Eisenman had wire fraud against Theranos investors.
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4. There was no verdict in the wire fraud against Theranos investors.
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5. There was no verdict in the wire fraud against Theranos investors.
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6. The wire fraud against Theranos investors was committed by PFM healthcare master fund.
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7. A wire fraud was committed against Theranos investors.
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8. A wire fraud against Theranos investors was committed.
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9. There was wire fraud against Theranos paying patients.
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10. The patient M.E.'s blood-test results were not guilty of wire fraud.
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11. A wire transfer of more than $1 million was used to commit wire fraud against Theranos.
In her defense, she said that the CEO's failures were not a crime, and that investors should have done more research into the company. When she gave testimony, she said that she believed what the people running the labs were telling her. She wanted to talk about what the company could do in the future and she believed the product worked.
According to the New York Times, he wanted to talk about what the company could do in 10 years. I wanted to discuss what was possible.
The accusations against Balwani and her ex-boyfriend were included in the testimony. Balwani had control of every aspect of her life, including her schedule, self-presentation, and time with her family. She stated that Balwani forced her to have sex with him.
Balwani denied the accusations. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
The maximum prison sentence for each guilty charge is 20 years. The person is expected to appeal.
