Law Elizabeth Holmes Found Guilty on Four Counts - On Monday, a jury found Ms. Holmes guilty on four of 11 counts of wire fraud or conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Elizabeth Holmes was accused of intentionally deceiving patients and investors about the capabilities of her blood-testing startup Theranos Inc., which promised to revolutionize healthcare by using just a few drops of blood from a finger prick to test for a wide range of health conditions. Instead, prosecutors alleged, the company’s proprietary technology was faulty and Theranos hid that it used commercial devices for most of its tests.

On Monday, a jury found Ms. Holmes guilty on four of 11 counts of wire fraud or conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. Here are the counts and the jury's verdict.

1. Conspiracy to commit wire fraud against Theranos investors: Guilty

2. Conspiracy to commit wire fraud against Theranos paying patients: Not guilty

3. Wire fraud against Theranos investors: wire transfer of $99,990 from Alan Jay Eisenman: No verdict

4. Wire fraud against Theranos investors: wire transfer of $5,349,900 from Black Diamond Ventures: No verdict

5. Wire fraud against Theranos investors: wire transfer of $4,875,000 from Hall Phoenix Inwood Ltd.: No verdict

6. Wire fraud against Theranos investors: wire transfer of $38,336,632 from PFM Healthcare Master Fund: Guilty

7. Wire fraud against Theranos investors: wire transfer of $99,999,984 from Lakeshore Capital Management LP: Guilty

8. Wire fraud against Theranos investors: wire transfer of $5,999,997 from Mosley Family Holdings LLC: Guilty

9. Prosecutors dropped this count in November, after making an error that put the count in peril.

10. Wire fraud against Theranos paying patients: wire transmission of patient E.T.’s blood-test results: Not guilty

11. Wire fraud against Theranos paying patients: wire transmission of patient M.E.’s blood-test results: Not guilty

12. Wire fraud against Theranos paying patients: wire transfer of $1,126,661 used to purchase advertisements for Theranos Wellness Centers: Not guilty

The guilty verdicts against Elizabeth Holmes mean the Theranos founder could be going to prison for years.

Sentencing is a complex and time-consuming process, and many steps still stand between Ms. Holmes and any potential prison time.

She likely will be allowed to stay free on bail until her sentencing, which could take place six months or more from now, sentencing experts said.

The first step is having a probation officer look through the facts of the case and put together a detailed pre-sentence report. This has to be provided to each side at least 45 days ahead of the sentencing hearing.

The report will analyze what sentence seems appropriate under nonbinding federal guidelines, which include factors such as criminal history, the amount of money lost, whether someone was a leader or low-level participant in a crime and whether any special skills were used to commit the crime. "It gets really complicated in a hurry," said Douglas Berman, a professor at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law who wrote a casebook on sentencing law.

Ms. Holmes's lawyers and the government can then push back on that report, filing their own interpretations of the guidelines and what sentences they think Ms. Holmes deserves.

There is no mandatory minimum sentence for the conspiracy and wire fraud counts she was convicted of, and each count carries a maximum of 20 years. In some cases, like the 150-year sentence given to Ponzi scheme operator Bernie Madoff, the maximum for each count is stacked. In most fraud cases, stacking isn't the norm, Mr. Berman and others familiar with sentencing said.

The final decision rests with U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, who oversaw Ms. Holmes's trial. Judges are guided to hand down a sentence that is "sufficient but not greater than necessary to achieve the purposes of punishment," Mr. Berman said.

From there, Ms. Holmes can request to stay out on bail pending an appeal of her conviction. If a sentence is relatively short, like two years or less, defense lawyers can often succeed in keeping white-collar defendants out of jail during an appeal, Mr. Berman said. For longer sentences, he said, the argument is much harder to make.

Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Live Updates

Elizabeth Holmes, founder of failed blood-testing startup Theranos Inc., was found guilty on four of 11 criminal-fraud charges. The conclusion comes roughly four months after testimony began, and brings to a finale the startup saga that gripped Silicon Valley. Follow the latest developments.

www.wsj.com

Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Live Updates

archived 4 Jan 2022 00:42:55 UTC

archive.is

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

Substantial Sentence Likely for Convicted Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes

Substantial Sentence Likely for Convicted Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holm…

archived 10 Jan 2022 18:03:15 UTC

archive.md

A likely sentence in this case, in the opinion of the author, will be between 17 and 21 years. A sentence of anything less than at least 10 years is highly unlikely in this writer’s opinion. Given that Ms. Holmes’ offense level is likely to be at the 37 or higher point, resulting in a Guideline sentence of at least 17.5 years, even under the most optimistic scenario, it is extremely difficult to see how a sentencing court would impose a sentence lower than the 210-month sentence which is at the “low end” of offense level 37.

Author of the piece seems to be a former federal prosecutor, if I'm googling right.

 

[Wesley Willis]

lol Henry Kissinger.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

Don't believe it can be done now either, maybe in 10-20 years.

X to doubt.

I'm not a doctor or anything, my medical knowledge is limited to random things I've read, most of them connected to this case. However, from what I've read, multiple tests on a small volume of blood runs into the problem that blood that gets tested for X gets effectively destroyed in the process, and thus can't be used to test for Y. So you run into the physical limitation of simply running out of blood to work with before you can get anything like a proper panel done. Theranos "solved" this problem by double-diluting their blood samples, which had the side-effect of causing the cells to explode due to the hypotonic environment- "the tests were retuning Vitamin D levels that would only make sense if the patients were dead."

Now, if Theranos had tried to create and sell a device that did one-shot tests on a finger stick (think a high-tech version of an OraQuick kit) that might have actually worked, but Holmes wanted to create "the iPod of health care," so I don't know if it was even considered. I think that's why she hung on as long as she did- she was convinced that if she just kept pushing, the breakthrough she needed was juuuuuust around the corner, if she could just keep the plates spinning. Remember that Holmes's formal training in medicine is a couple semesters of undergrad work at Stanford, meaning that she's only slightly more qualified on the topic than I am.

FWIW, Carreyrou and friends are predicting 4-5 years, so let's see how that pans out.

 

[grump]

X to doubt.


Now, if Theranos had tried to create and sell a device that did one-shot tests on a finger stick (think a high-tech version of an OraQuick kit) that might have actually worked, but Holmes wanted to create "the iPod of health care," so I don't know if it was even considered. I think that's why she hung on as long as she did- she was convinced that if she just kept pushing, the breakthrough she needed was juuuuuust around the corner, if she could just keep the plates spinning. Remember that Holmes's formal training in medicine is a couple semesters of undergrad work at Stanford, meaning that she's only slightly more qualified on the topic than I am.

FWIW, Carreyrou and friends are predicting 4-5 years, so let's see how that pans out.

You and even the vast majority of media aren't really getting across just how groundbreaking the tech was that Theranos was claiming they've invented. If everything was as they'd hyped the technology underlying it would lay the ground work for the biochem equivalent of the Computer Revolution. Forget blood testing. Thats just the beginning. Imagine an entire research institute or pharmaceutical factory automated and sitting in a box hooked up to your computer. It would make Silicon Valley look like a wet fart. And Holmes would basically be a James Watt or Gutenberg figure only bigger, being singularly responsible for kickstarting a new tech era.

I don't think even Elizabeth herself understood just how big a claim it was and the implications of what she was saying if it was true.

 

[murdered meat bag]

She cost various investors and venture capitalists over $600 million dollars

It was fraud on a grand scale and all she was tagged for was some pathetic wire fraud charges.

People died because her "wonder" machine was complete fake she knew it. She and her cohorts did everything possible to cover up and hide this fact all the while using her political contacts to push hospitals into buying contracts with Theranos for patient testing. Thy were 100% aware the data they were giving back to hospitals wasn't 100% accurate but they sent it anyway to cover up for the fact their wonder machine was full of shit and didn't work.

Selling false information to hospitals she should have been charged with manslaughter really.

But the bitch is rich, well connected and duped just about everyone so the big wigs want it all swept away and forgotten of course. Another huge win for progressism right? Don't question impossible claims if they come from a woman right? Just listen, believe and fork over that cash.

how did people die? at some point theranos was just running blood work on Siemmen machines and passing the results off as their handiwork.

 

[Sweet and Savoury]

how did people die? at some point theranos was just running blood work on Siemmen machines and passing the results off as their handiwork.

Theranos was getting desperate for funding in its later years as investment incomming was no longer any where near what they needed to keep the fraud going. Payroll and basic expenses needed to be met or everything might come tublming down before they could get their "break through"

So they started to offer testing for conditions and diseases that Siemmen's machines didn't test for and at record speed and costs using a "new algorithm" that compared something to something using some technobabble. It was 100% fraudulent but the top minds at Theranos felt they just needed a few more months at best and they'd be good to go with the miracle machine. Plus..you know they wanted their 7 figure salaries to keep coming in as well.

This is actually what tipped the scales as some of the engineers and test developers saw through the bullshit and started making comments outside of the office, which lead to the start of an investigation. The dude who leaked the info to the FDA said he could abide by Theranos when they were just bilking billionaires but now actual lives were being placed into jeopardy by these false tests Theranos was pushing.

While its hard to say for sure who died as a result of poor information being given to the doctors it is a 100% guarantee that some people who needed treatment were told they were ok while others were given treatments they didn't need.

All because these rich, well connected people put their own money ahead of the lives of others. Really the whole board of Theranos should be on trail but good luck finding a DA that wants to go up against the US's most wealthy and powerful people. Holmes was a sop thrown under the bus but she was only 1 of 9 board members and who knows how many others knew about the fraud and said nothing so they could get their money out before it all crashed down.

Rules for the rich and laws for the poor...same old story since the dawn of man.

 

[Stoneheart]

I'm not a doctor or anything, my medical knowledge is limited to random things I've read, most of them connected to this case. However, from what I've read, multiple tests on a small volume of blood runs into the problem that blood that gets tested for X gets effectively destroyed in the process, and thus can't be used to test for Y. So you run into the physical limitation of simply running out of blood to work with before you can get anything like a proper panel done. Theranos "solved" this problem by double-diluting their blood samples, which had the side-effect of causing the cells to explode due to the hypotonic environment- "the tests were retuning Vitamin D levels that would only make sense if the patients were dead."

what? thes a rookie mistake, you dont delute blood with water...

Siemmen

What?

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

how did people die? at some point theranos was just running blood work on Siemmen machines and passing the results off as their handiwork.

That's hard to know for sure. We know they had to void thousands of tests, and that a lot of people got false positives- but there's no way to be sure how many people got negative tests who weren't negative.

As for the test results themselves, from what I've read they came from three sources: third-party labs they farmed work out to (which were fine,) their Siemens machines (which used the double-dilution method I mentioned earlier, and so got shit results,) and their own Edison machines (which were a prototype that also got shit results.) So everything that came out of Theranos proper is suspect.

All because these rich, well connected people put their own money ahead of the lives of others. Really the whole board of Theranos should be on trail but good luck finding a DA that wants to go up against the US's most wealthy and powerful people. Holmes was a sop thrown under the bus but she was only 1 of 9 board members and who knows how many others knew about the fraud and said nothing so they could get their money out before it all crashed down.

Rules for the rich and laws for the poor...same old story since the dawn of man.

As the saying goes, it's not what you know, it's what you can prove. If you look at the big name investors and board members she reeled in, all of them were dinosaurs: Mattis, Kissinger, Schultz, and Murdoch (those are just the ones off the top of my head) are all old enough to remember the cathode ray tube as a breakthrough. They were selected for clout and conspicuous lack of any medical background- nobody with domain knowledge wanted to touch Theranos with a ten-foot pole.

It gets harder when you remember that Holmes pulled an "I am the Senate" in the waning days of the company and gave each of her shares 100 votes each (she held half the company in preferred shares that got paid out last in case of dissolution, hence the famous Forbes article restating her net worth from $4.5 billion to zero.) The only person you could nail as complicit besides her would probably be her street shitters boyfriend.

 

[DamnWolves!]

From what one of the lawtubers said, apparently the sentencing guidelines when you do all the math and add in the aggravating factors suggest life without parole because the sheer amount of shekels she swindled and people she fucked over with wrong testing, the tech mislead hundreds of thousands of people.

Your "lawtuber" is LARPing as a lawyer or doesn't know Federal law. She was found not guilty of defrauding patients, so while I agree with you on the detestable morality of this criminal enterprise and the way it fucked with patients, the law does not.

Secondly, all these charges stem from the same criminal act, which means the sentences will run concurrent with one another. The sentencing matrix is quite clear; these crimes have a maximum of 25 years each and the guidelines suggest a sentence of somewhere between 12-15 years.

Thirdly, the only crime she was really convicted of is ripping off a bunch of rich assholes who were trying to get even richer. The system needs to have some nuance; you cannot give someone the same sentence for fraud as you do for multiple homicide. Life without parole is for dangerous offenders who cannot be redeemed.

She ran the luckiest confidence scam in the history of confidence scams. She was tangentially connected to important people just enough that she could get the next domino to fall, over and over, gaining momentum each time.

That's where the "confidence" part of "confidence scam" comes in. She started off by getting a well known and well liked Secretary of State to invest, and from there it's a lot of FOMO from a lot of people who should know better. Everyone investing knew it was a risk; they just didn't know how much of a risk it would be.

I actually think the machine is quite plausible, especially considering everyone knows we do blood sugar tests with a finger prick, so why not other types of tests?

However, being a woman and it being white collar crime, it'll probably be 4-5 years probation. I'd be shocked if she got any long term prison time. (Maybe a year, at most.)

To reiterate, Federal judges have little discretion on sentencing, unless they want to explain the departure to the circuit court. This is a massive fraud that embarrassed a lot of people. If I was a betting man, I'd say 125 months at Club Fed. The sentencing will be a big deal; we won't find out for another 6 months, but I'll try to remember to come back and ping you.

Why she didn't book a first class flight out to some tropical island with no extradition treaties back five years ago is a mystery we'll never know.

At this point, you're probably better off taking your 15 year prison sentence than trying to live in a place with no extradition to the US. You'll also be blocked from the international banking system and any company that does business in the US will be banned from doing business with you.

However, from what I've read, multiple tests on a small volume of blood runs into the problem that blood that gets tested for X gets effectively destroyed in the process, and thus can't be used to test for Y. So you run into the physical limitation of simply running out of blood to work with before you can get anything like a proper panel done.

True, a finger prick is probably not enough to do a full panel, but it's also true that they take far more blood than they actually need for traditional testing. The big issue is the need for phlebotomists (needle-sticking people) for traditional testing. I still think it's plausible that you could get sufficient blood to test from capillary blood, like what you get with a finger prick--you might need to squeeze some, but microcapillary action is real and can divert fluids on a microscopic scale like Theranos proposed.

I think the real issue is that all those tests need vastly different conditions. Some need the blood to be centrifugally separated, some don't; some need a certain temp range or pH for their antibody or enzyme reaction to work; etc.

Imagine an entire research institute or pharmaceutical factory automated and sitting in a box hooked up to your computer.

That kind of already exists. CNC-type machines have been used in pharma research for a long time; most often for automatic pipetting to and from samples. I think the claimed revolution here was the ability to eliminate the testing sites and staff from the supply chain.

While its hard to say for sure who died as a result of poor information being given to the doctors it is a 100% guarantee that some people who needed treatment were told they were ok while others were given treatments they didn't need.

If they could have found someone who died as a result, they would have put up a witness to say so and we'd maybe be looking at culpable manslaughter charges. Best they could do was some woman who almost aborted her healthy baby because her hormone tests came back wacky. In any event, she's off the hook for defrauding patients, so further proceedings will focus on the investors.