Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and former CEO of blood testing company Theranos, was found guilty on Monday of four counts of federal fraud and acquitted of four more in the trial against her company, while
the jury failed to reach an agreement on others. three remaining charges
, after months of trial.
Holmes, 37, was the pioneer of a modernized blood test, invented in 2003, that consisted of a cheap finger prick that would provide comprehensive results for a number of medical problems.
In 2015, however, the Wall Street Journal reported that Theranos devices were inaccurate, spelling the start of the company's downfall.
It is not yet clear when the conviction for the charges to which she was found guilty will be released this Monday, nor how long it could take to reach a decision on the rest.
Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes and her mother Noel Holmes in San Jose, California, on December 23, as the trial proceedings against them continued.David Odisho / Getty Images
Theranos story
In 2003, Holmes, then 19, followed the contours of a well-trodden path to Silicon Valley corporate stardom, leaving Stanford to pursue a singular idea: revolutionizing blood testing by running a rapid battery of tests with a only finger prick.
[He promised to change the world of medicine. Now Elizabeth Holmes faces up to 20 years in prison]
Rather than raise funds from the usual West Coast venture capital groups - which demanded the publication of peer-reviewed studies showing that their biotech worked -
Holmes raised more than $ 700 million from
private investors and hedge funds from the company. East Coast, which brought the company a valuation of $ 9 billion, and a fortune for her of about $ 4.5 billion, making her the youngest self-made billionaire in the world.
Elizabeth Holmes (center) walks to court in San Jose, California, on Nov.22, 2021.Nic Coury / AP
Holmes told investors that the company was on track to make $ 100 million in revenue in 2014,
but was actually only generating about $ 100,000.
The company created an impressive roster of dignitaries and military advisers on its board of directors, including former Secretary of Defense James Mattis and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Publishing mogul Rupert Murdoch, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos were among his group of investors.
But the technology had problems, which medical professionals and a series of investigative articles published by The Wall Street Journal published in 2015 and 2016. Reporter John Carreyrou published the news that, although the company claimed that its Blood test machines could perform more than 1,000 different diagnostic tests,
its key technology could only perform a finger prick test
.
Skepticism also increased among the medical community.
It all ended in June 2018, when the company was charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission and with wire fraud and conspiracy by the United States Attorney for Northern California.