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TAP TIMES -27- FEBRUARY 2022
Jury returns guilty verdict
in Theranos’ Holmes trial
SAN JOSE — Once lauded as the “fe-
male Steve Jobs,” a jury found Eliza-
beth Holmes, 37, guilty of three
counts of wire fraud and one count of
conspiracy to commit wire fraud on
January 3.
This photo of the Stanford dropout holding a vial of blood
was distributed by the Theranos PR machine during Eliza-
Sentencing date beth Holmes’ glory days. (Theranos)
Sentencing is scheduled for September
26. Holmes faces 20 years in prison on At one time, Theranos was said to be
each count. She was found not guilty of worth $9 billion on paper, while Holmes,
four additional charges, and jurors could a Stanford University drop-out, was also
not agree on three other counts. worth billions.
The company she founded, Theranos, Wealthy celebrities invested
lured multi-millions of dollars from inves- Court watchers say her brilliant sales tech-
tors attracted by the prospects of a Ther- niques managed to convince many wealthy
anos machine that would detect hundreds celebrities, including former President Bill
of illnesses from a single drop of blood. Clinton and the late Secretary of State
George Schultz, to invest in the company.
A world away
Her oft-postponed trial took place in San
Jose’s U.S. District Court — about 30 min-
utes distance, but a world away from the
now-shuttered Theranos campus in Palo
Alto.
The verdict arrived after the jury deliber-
ated two weeks. Whistleblower
Tyler Schultz, grandson of George Schul-
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 56, her co-de- tz and a Theranos employee, was a key
fendant in the government’s case and the whistleblower in the federal case against
Theranos’ president and Holmes’ former Holmes and Balwani.
boyfriend, is scheduled to go on trial later A Theranos photo of its local machine manufacturing fa-
this year. cility in Newark, Calif.
Whistleblower
Holmes, now married and who recently The Theranos miracle began to unravel in
gave birth to her first child, has become 2015, after Tyler Schultz, the elder Schulz’s
as notorious as she was once famous. grandson, blew the whistle on the compa-
ny.
Her story will provide the makings for
several Hollywood films. At least one, Schultz, then 25 and a Stanford graduate
reportedly in progress for more than two was just two years out of school when he
years, may appear on Hulu. next
