Page 38 - december22_112922.indd
P. 38
TAP TIMES -38- DECEMBER 2022
Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos Holmes’ sales prowess enabled her to
founder, gets prison for 11 years draw-in several high-profile investors to
the Theranos board. They included Rupert
SAN JOSE, Calif. Elizabeth Holmes, Murdoch, owner of Fox News and multiple
38, Theranos founder and CEO — once media properties, who was perhaps the
worth billions on paper — was sen- company’s largest investor.
tenced to a prison term of 11.25 years
on November 18 in federal court here. Other investors included venture capital-
ist Tim Draper, whose company provided
Four counts of fraud the initial seed money to Theranos, some
Holmes, now pregnant with her second $500,000; and Larry Ellison, founder of
child, was convicted in January of four software giant Oracle.
counts of criminal fraud related to her
company’s claims of an almost-miraculous
blood diagnostic machine named “Edison.”
Sentencing had been postponed several
times, while Holmes’ lawyers petitioned
the court for a new trial, citing witness
tampering.
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 57,who served
as Palo Alto-based Theranos’ president and Elizabeth Holmes holds a capsule used in the Theranos blood di-
COO, is scheduled to be sentenced this agnostic system “Edison.” (Theranos PR photo)
month on similar charges. Celebrity Board of Directors
The celebrity Theranos board was com-
A Beijing tâte-à-tâte prised of the likes of former president Bill
In addition to being a Theranos executive, Clinton; former Secretary of State George
Balwani was Holmes’ lover. The two first Shultz; and William Perry, former secre-
met in Beijing, China when Holmes was tary of defense and Nixon’s former secre-
on a language emersion trip in 2002 as a tary of State Henry Kissinger.
Stanford University student. A year later,
she dropped-out of Stanford and founded Shultz’ grandson, Tyler Shultz, who
Theranos. worked for Holmes, was a key whistle-
blower in the downfall of the company
At the height of Theranos notoriety, which was dissolved in 2018, after Ther-
Holmes appeared on the cover of nearly anos’ blood diagnostic machine was prov-
every business magazine including Forbes en unsuccessful.
and Fortune, with lengthy stories inside
comparing her charisma to Apple’s Steve Other investors who bought into Theranos’
Jobs. claims included Walgreens, the giant na-
tional pharmacy chain.
Since Theranos’ fall in 1988, Holmes’ story
has been told in a 2019 HBO documentary, Holmes has been free pending sentencing.
“The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Val- She is to report to a prison yet to be de-
ley,” and a 2022 fictionalized documentary, termined on April 27. — R.I.
“The Dropout” on the Hulu channel.
