A jury in the United States found the founder of the biotech startup Theranos Elizabeth Holmes guilty of fraud and defrauding investors. CNN reports this.
Elizabeth Holmes. Photo: social networks
The jury ruled that Holmes was guilty on four counts out of 11. She was acquitted on four counts, and the assessors did not come to a unanimous decision on the other three counts. These episodes can be considered in a new lawsuit.
Holmes faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to a million dollars. However, the entrepreneur's defender doubts that she will be given the maximum sentence.
In 2003, Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos while a student at Stanford University. The startup's original idea was to develop a patch that could diagnose a disease, drop by drop, and treat it at the same time. Holmes' idea was supported by the dean of her faculty and professor of chemical engineering Channing Robertson. The girl managed to get a grant.
Later, the project raised more than $ 700 million in investments, and was joined by two former US Secretaries of State — Henry Kissinger and George Schultz. In 2014, Holmes became Forbes' youngest self-made billionaire. But in 2015, The Wall Street Journal published an investigation by journalist John Carreiro, which said that the startup was not working, and the test results were falsified.
The following year, US authorities said at least one of Theranos laboratories posed a hazard to customers. Several federal agencies have opened investigations. By the time the company was liquidated in 2018, Holmes was facing major fraud charges.