Posted on 03/14/2018 1:00:56 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
Elizabeth Holmes — the Silicon Valley wunderkind whose blood-testing startup Theranos has collapsed in a slew of scandals — has been charged with “massive fraud” by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC on Wednesday accused Theranos CEO Holmes and a top lieutenant of defrauding investors of more than $700 million through false claims about its blood-testing technology.
Theranos and 34-year-old Holmes ran “an elaborate, years-long fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the company’s technology, business, and financial performance,” according to the SEC.
While Theranos had said it was on track to make $100 million by the end of 2014, the real figure was “a little more than $100,000,” according to the SEC. And, contrary to what Theranos told investors about the Department Defense using its blood tests, they were “never deployed by the DOD in the battlefield, in Afghanistan, or on medevac helicopters,” according to the settlement.
Holmes — a Steve Jobs wannabe who dressed exclusively in black turtlenecks — settled with the regulators for $500,000 while neither admitting nor denying the accusations. She additionally agreed to not be a director or officer of a public company for 10 years, and to forgo profiting from Theranos ownership until $750 million is returned to investors, according to the consent order with the SEC. Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the company’s president and chief operating officer, is fighting the charges.
The charges amount to one of the biggest scandals to rock the tech world since the bursting of the tech bubble in 1999.
The settlement marks a further humiliation for Holmes, a Silicon Valley star who at one point was the youngest self-made woman billionaire with $4.5 billion in net worth.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Some highlights of her background on Wiki:
Holmes studied Mandarin as a child and completed three years of summer language classes at Stanford University before graduating from high school.
She attended St. John's School in Houston and was recognized for her "tireless optimism and a particularly warm smile." During high school, Holmes was interested in computer programming and started her first business selling C++ compilers to Chinese universities. In 2001, Holmes applied to Stanford University and was named a President's Scholar, which came with a stipend to use on a research project. She studied chemical engineering and used the stipend to work in a lab with Ph.D. candidates and Channing Robertson, dean at the engineering school.
After the end of her freshman year, Holmes worked in a lab at the Genome Institute of Singapore on testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) through the collection of blood samples with syringes. She filed her first patent on a wearable drug-delivery patch in 2003. In March 2004, she dropped out of Stanford's School of Engineering and used her tuition money as seed funding for a consumer healthcare technology company.
By December 2004, she had raised $6 million to fund Theranos. By the end of 2010, Holmes had more than $92 million in venture capital for Theranos.
The Wall Street Journal reported in October 2015 that the Edison blood-testing device by Theranos might provide inaccurate results.
Becoming a billionaire with a company that doesn't have a real working product! Only in America, kiddos!
“The settlement marks a further humiliation for Holmes, a Silicon Valley star who at one point was the youngest self-made woman billionaire with $4.5 billion in net worth.”
So if she’s worth this much, why didn’t the SEC just tell her to pay up?
Holmes:
Did I mention I am a democrat?
She’s famous in Silicon Valley for SCREAMING HER HEAD OFF at her employees.
She read the stories about Steve Jobs —how some would get off the elevator if the CEO suddenly got on— and she EMULATED THAT.
She even bought a silver Mercedes because of him.
It’s WEIRD.
The thinking is almost, “Do even ‘Steve’ stuff and you’ll EARN like him”.
Chilling.
DANG! I searched “Theranos” and “Holmes” in titles and didn’t find it.
Mods, please delete this duplicate...or, as you see fit, maybe keep this copy because of my “deep” insights. LOL.
Why isn’t she in prison and penniless?...................
“$500,000 while neither admitting nor denying the accusations”
What a tiny slap on the wrist! Stole $700 million from investors; because worth $4.5 million.
It’s like letting McCabe and Lois Lerner retire with their pensions after decades of government corruption.
She should have been banned from all boards of directors and executive positions of trust for life.
“because worth $4.5 million.”
Darn it...should have read “BECAME worth $4.5 BILLION.”
Aaarrgghh!
One guy at Stanford changed his major specifically because of her.
He later ended up working for her, elated.
Time and time again he tested the device and it didn’t get anywhere NEAR the results she was touting.
He was honest about it, told her about it, and he got the SCREAM treatment.
They finally ran him out of there on a rail.
This kid..? He’s related to JAMES BAKER, the Sect’y of State to George Bush.
He spilled the beans about the actual quality of Theranos devices and was more or less THROWN OUT OF HIS FAMILY.
Yeah, James Baker (who point-blank ordered him, “STOP what you’re doing”) is on their Board of Directors, or something.
Her line should be “I donated it all to the Clinton Foundation”.
Soon!
She doesn’t have anything. That was the estimation based on the assumption that her blood test machine works.
You are thinking of the grandson of George Schultz, not James Baker (both Schultz and Baker were on the board of Theranos).
These white collar scum who occupy major corporations and government would be hung or imprisoned for life for their thievery in different times. Those in prison for extended terms besides violence and capital crimes have parking tickets compared to these criminals.
Yes..!
Thank you.
Exactly right.
The honest employee who couldn't take the fraud any longer
(and who therefore was made to suffer)
Most people don't anticipate just how deep her voice is; her photos might suggest she chirps, maybe.
On the phone she could easily be mistaken for a man.
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