The reckoning begins
Jury selection begins today in the federal criminal case against Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the blood-testing tech start-up Theranos. Indicted in 2018, she faces a dozen counts of fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for making false claims about Theranos’s blood tests and business prospects. She has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, Holmes, 37, faces up to 20 years in prison.
Opening arguments in the trial, which is expected to last three to four months, begin next week. At the heart of the proceedings, The Times’s Erin Griffith and Erin Woo write, is whether Holmes intentionally misled investors about her company’s technology or believed her own lies and was manipulated by others.
Court filings recently unsealed provided a preview of what Holmes’s lawyers may say, and whom they could present in her defense.
Holmes may point the finger at others, judging from a request her lawyers made last year that was just made public. She will be tried alone, but is not the only one accused of fraud. Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her former boyfriend and the former president and C.O.O. of Theranos, also faces charges. (His trial will begin early next year; he also pleaded not guilty.)
Holmes told the court she could introduce an expert to discuss “a mental condition bearing on guilt,” namely that her relationship with Balwani had a “pattern of abuse and coercive control.” Balwani’s lawyers denied the accusation in a filing.
The tech industry’s “fake it till...
Read Full Story: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/business/dealbook/theranos-trial-elizabeth-holmes.html
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