Theranos's Insane Campaign To Punish Whistleblower, Who Happened To Be Famous Boardmember's Grandson

TechDirt ^ | Mon, Nov 21st 2016 5:13pm | by Mike Masnick

[CorporateStepsister]

We haven't really written much about the insane Theranos scandal, though we discussed it on our podcast. The whole story is pretty crazy -- involving a heavily hyped up company that appeared to basically be flat out lying to everyone about what it could do. The company still exists, but barely. The company's founder and CEO, who was plastered across magazine covers and compared frequently to Steve Jobs, has been banned from running a lab for two years, and the company is now facing a $140 million lawsuit from its biggest partner, Walgreens, who claims that Theranos repeatedly lied to Walgreens.

All the while, Walgreens alleges that Theranos: actively misled the company; didn’t live up to the quality and regulatory promises; kept Walgreens in the dark about problems; refused to answer questions as media reports came out about those problems; accused Walgreens of leaking information to the press; and asserted that Walgreens was the one that had breached their agreement.

One thing that became clear as the whole scandal broke, was that the company continued to aggressively deny wrongdoing, even as it became more and more obvious that almost everything that Theranos was saying publicly, allowing the company to be valued around $9 billion, was completely bogus. One of the most striking stories that came out a few months ago, was a report on the almost cult-like response from Theranos after the very first of a series of articles exposing the fraud came to light. The reporter who did an amazing job in exposing Theranos was the Wall Street Journal's John Carreyrou. And according to a thorough recounting in Vanity Fair, after Carreyou's first article, rather than honestly addressing the allegations, this happened:

[CorporateStepsister]

Steve Jobs set the example though that it was okay to abuse your employees, indulge in hubris, and basically end up looking like a slob who likes to think that being slovenly makes them authentic.