Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, was found guilty of four counts in a months-long fraud trial in California.
Prosecutors claimed that Holmes knowingly lied about technology that allegedly detected diseases with a few drops of blood.
Jurors found Holmes guilty on four different charges. These include conspiracy to defraud investors and three electronic scams. Holmes, 37, could face up to 20 years in prison.
A total of 11 charges were brought against Holmes, but four charges related to public defraud were not convicted.
Valued at $9 billion at one point, Theranos was once a Silicon Valley favorite company.
While the company was promising to revolutionize the healthcare industry, its claims began to fail after the Wall Street Journal reported in 2015 that its blood test technology was not working. It officially closed in 2018.
In the four-month trial, the eight men and four women’s juries were presented with two very different landscapes about the billionaire woman whose fall shocked Silicon Valley.
The prosecution called 30 witnesses to prove that Holmes was adamant about the company’s success, even though he knew the product he was selling to investors was fraudulent.
In the lawsuit, several lab directors said Holmes knew of the flaws in Theranos’ technology, but was asked to downplay his concerns. At the same time, it was recorded that Holmes told investors that the technology was working as planned.
In his closing statement, Prosecutor Jeff Schenk said Holmes “chosen to defraud rather than fail at work” and “chose not to be honest with investors and patients.”
However, the defense tried to portray an ambitious businesswoman dedicated to her job in a male-dominated industry.
In his defense, Holmes claimed that while Theranos admitted faults in its operations, it had never knowingly defrauded patients or investors.
The defense also accused Holmes’ former business partner and long-term boyfriend Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.
Holmes accuses Balwani, who is 19 years older, of emotional and sexual abuse. In her seven-day testimony, Elizabeth Holmes spoke of an intense relationship in which Balwani controlled the administration of Theranos, who she spoke to, how she spoke, and what she ate. Balwani denied the accusations.
The 10-year relationship ended when he stepped down as CEO in May 2016. Balwani’s trial will begin next month.
Holmes founded Theranos at the age of 19, shortly after leaving Stanford University’s Chemical Engineering major. Billionaires such as Holmes, media giant Rupert Murdoch and technology giant Larry Ellison managed to find $ 900 million in funding.