19-11-22, 03:30
|
#2
|
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 47,691
Thanks: 27,648
Thanked 14,458 Times in 10,262 Posts
|
re: Elizabeth Holmes Arrives at Texas Prison For 11-Year Term
Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison
Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the failed blood-testing start-up Theranos, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. Holmes was found guilty of cheating investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars with false claims about the company’s technology and business dealings.
BBC News 19 NOV 2022.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to over 11 years in prison for defrauding investors in her blood testing start-up that was once valued at $9bn (£7.5bn).
The former Silicon Valley star falsely claimed the technology could diagnose disease with just a few drops of blood.
Holmes, 38, who is pregnant, tearfully told the court she felt "deep pain" for those misled by the scam.
She was found guilty in January after a three-month trial.
Holmes is expected to appeal against the sentence, which was handed down on Friday in a California court.
Once hailed as the "next Steve Jobs", she was at one time said to be the world's youngest self-made billionaire.
She launched Theranos after dropping out of Stanford University at age 19, and its value rose sharply after the company claimed it could bring about a revolution in the diagnosal of disease.
But the technology Holmes touted did not work and - awash in lawsuits - the company was dissolved by 2018.
At Holmes' trial in San Jose, California, prosecutors said she knowingly misled doctors and patients about Theranos' flagship product - the Edison machine - which the company claimed could detect cancer, diabetes and other conditions using just a few drops of blood.
They also accused Holmes of vastly exaggerating the firm's performance to its financial backers.
Jurors ultimately found her guilty on four counts of fraud, with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. But they found her not guilty on four other charges, and failed to reach a verdict on three more.
Before Judge Edward Davila issued his sentence on Friday, Holmes read a speech to the court in which she tearfully apologised to investors and patients.
The rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes
"I am devastated by my failings. I have felt deep pain for what people went through, because I failed them," she said.
"I regret my failings with every cell of my body," she continued.
The judge referred to Holmes as a "brilliant" entrepreneur, and told her: "Failure is normal. But failure by fraud is not OK."
|
|
|