The Latest on the Elizabeth Holmes Trial

Deliberations Continue in Elizabeth Holmes Fraud Trial

(USNewsMag.com) – Elizabeth Holmes, a woman that founded biotech company Theranos, is now facing 11 counts of conspiracy and criminal fraud. However, the controversial trial rolls into its fifth day of deliberations, with no confirmed verdict in sight for the near future, apparently.

On Tuesday, December 28, the jury in the trial failed to reach a verdict for the fifth day and is set to reconvene on Wednesday.

In 2018, Theranos collapsed revealing its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, was not how she represented herself. The biotech company promised investors and customers its Edison test could detect conditions including diabetes and cancer with just a prick of the finger and a few drops of blood. The federal government swooped in and brought a case to a grand jury which went on to issue an indictment, and has been ongoing for the past three months now.

 

The company was once valued at $9 billion and had a board that included General James Mattis and Henry Kissinger. All that changed when it was revealed the company couldn’t conduct many of the blood tests it promised. Federal authorities accused Holmes of defrauding investors and committing wire fraud.

In addition to Holmes, her longtime boyfriend and COO of Theranos, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, will go on trial in February. He’s accused of federal conspiracy to commit wire fraud and federal wire fraud.

Holmes has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. She’s facing a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count.

Although the jury hasn’t yet reached a verdict, the collapse of Theranos proved one thing: consumers and investors shouldn’t believe all the hype. As the age-old adage goes, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

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