/ 10 September 2021

Fraud v failure

Image source: AP
Image source: AP

Prosecutors and defence attorneys sketched out their portraits of fallen Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in their opening arguments of her fraud trial on Wednesday. Holmes is facing a sentence of up to 20 years if convicted after her Silicon Valley biotech company claimed it had invented a small machine that could run more than 200 complex diagnostic tests from just a small drop of blood. On Wednesday, prosecutors accused Holmes of misleading investors to secure more than $700 million in capital, and they say she lied about the company’s progress to save her faltering business. Her lawyers say her company isn’t different from other businesses that had ideas that didn’t work out. “Failure is not a crime,” an attorney for Holmes said. Over the coming weeks, the jury will hear from many witnesses. On the maybe list: Theranos investor Rupert Murdoch.

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