The youngest self-made billionaire in the world, Elizabeth Holmes, may face a prison sentence of up to 80 years. Holmes promised to revolutionize blood testing, but it turned out to be nothing more than a media “hype.” The Wall Street Journal revealed that Holmes is a "liar and fraudster" regarding claims about fast and accurate blood tests and detecting serious diseases with just a few drops of blood.
A California jury convicted Holmes on 4 out of 11 counts related to conspiracy and wire fraud, with each charge carrying a possible sentence of 20 years.
Holmes founded a $9 billion company
Elizabeth Holmes rose to fame in 2014 at the age of 30. She left Stanford University and founded a $9 billion company to revolutionize disease diagnosis. With just a few drops of blood, her company Theranos claimed that its test called Edison could quickly detect diseases such as cancer and diabetes without the pain of multiple needle pricks. High-profile investors included former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Fraud charges
However, by 2015, things began to unravel, and within a year, Holmes was accused of fraud, as the technology she promoted never worked as claimed. By 2018, the company she founded collapsed. Now, Holmes has been found guilty of defrauding investors after a historic trial that lasted for months in California. Prosecutors stated that Holmes intentionally lied about the technology she claimed could detect diseases with just a few drops of blood. The jurors found Holmes guilty of conspiracy to defraud investors and three counts of wire fraud.
