Founder of the blood test company Theranos found guilty

The idea was revolutionary: extensive blood tests using just a few drops from the finger. Elizabeth Holmes hid from her prominent donors that Theranos technology never worked properly.

San Jose – Former model entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes has been found guilty of fraud against several of her investors by US jurors.

The guilty verdict affects only four of a total of eleven counts, as reported by the Wall Street Journal and the Bloomberg financial service from the courtroom in San Jose, California. Holmes had founded the ultimately failed blood test start-up Theranos and raised several hundred million dollars from investors. She always denied the fraud allegation.

Theranos’ great promise was to revolutionize blood tests: just a few drops from your finger should be enough to carry out extensive analyzes. The overall valuation of Theranos reached up to nine billion dollars in the financing rounds, and Holmes’ fortune also amounted to several billion dollars, at least on paper. The now 37-year-old was celebrated as a visionary and compared in press articles with Apple founder Steve Jobs – which was supported by her preference for black turtlenecks.

Financiers deliberately deceived

Among other things, the drugstore chain Walgreens got in and granted space for Theranos blood tests in their stores. As it turned out, however, Theranos technology was never sufficiently reliable. The tests were not carried out with the company’s own machines, but with laboratory technology from other manufacturers. The indictment accused Holmes of deliberately duping financiers in order to get hold of the investments. According to US media reports, the jury saw this confirmed in the case of three injections of money – and found Holmes guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud on another count.

Holmes testified at the trial that she sincerely believed in the technology, but that as chief executive, she was not informed of all of the problems. For a conviction, the prosecutors had to convince the jury that Holmes had deliberately made false statements. On three counts, the jury could not agree on the necessary unanimous vote, as they announced a few hours before the verdict. dpa