Elizabeth Holmes Should Be Sent To Prison Over $750 Million Theranos Blood Testing Scam That Endangered Public Health

Elizabeth Holmes Should Be Sent To Prison Over $750 Million Theranos Blood Testing Scam That Endangered Public Health

March 19. 2019

Elizabeth Holmes with her wild eyes and fake baritone voice is a scammer just like her dad

In 2003, 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of Stanford University and started the company Theranos. She did so with the claim she had developed a machine that could do 4-hour blood tests with a few drops of blood, as opposed to the conventional method requiring vials and days to obtain a completed result, regarding the patient's blood work.

Holmes went on to solicit $700,000,000 from investors such as Walgreens ($130 million), the Walton family, who founded Walmart ($150 million), The Cox family, who founded Cox Media Group ($100 million) Rupert Murdoch of News Corp/Fox ($121 million) and Betsy DeVos ($100 million). They all took Holmes' word for it and believed her unsound, unscientific prospectus, regarding what the machine could do.

Holmes stacked the board of Theranos with active and retired U.S. government officials, to give it an air of credibility. Former U.S. Secretaries of State, George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, joined the board, as did former Secretary of Defense William Perry, U.S. General James Mattis, Admiral Gary Roughhead and former Senators Sam Nunn and Bill Frist, among others.

The Theranos board also consisted of William Foege, who was the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Susan A. Evans, who was the former head of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Fabrizio Bonanni, who was the former vice president of Amgen, and former Wells Fargo bank CEO, Richard Kovacevich. Holmes was praised for assembling, "The most illustrious board in U.S. corporate history."

Elizabeth Holmes covered many magazines at the height of her fake fame

In 2014, Holmes shot to fame and was featured on magazine covers such as Fortune, Forbes, Time, Glamour and Inc. As with the standard overvaluation constantly conducted by publications such as Fortune and Forbes, who greatly exaggerating people's net worth and that of companies, they valued Theranos at $9 billion dollars.

They also proclaimed Holmes the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world (like another thieving, frequently sued fraud, who will soon be exposed, Kylie Jenner). They were calling Holmes the next Steve Jobs. Time magazine placed her on their "Most Influential People in the World" list. She was named "Woman of the Year" by Glamour magazine. She was made a member of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows. The story took on a life of its own.

However, the whole thing was a fraud and they should have seen it coming, because the signs were there. Holmes had not invented a machine that could produce accurate blood tests in a 4-hour span, by only using a few drops of blood. The first clue should have been the fact her dad, Christian Rasmus Holmes IV, was a vice president of Enron, the company that willfully and knowingly perpetrated one of the biggest frauds in American history.

The second clue should have been the inability to obtain accurate, demonstrable proof Theranos worked. No one clearly did, which facilitated her fraud. Holmes knew she was committing fraud and that her alleged blood testing machine did not work. She had to have known it did not work and here's why.

Any intelligent inventor verifies that their invention works from the outset before they put it into the marketplace. You test it to verify that it works and get out any existing kinks. An easy way to do this would have been for Holmes to use her own blood in Theranos in a controlled clinical setting (a lab or sterilized room in office space) to test her machine and record the 4-hour results.

Theranos machines that were fraudulent

On the same day, Holmes could then do blood tests the standard way, as done by doctors, who would then send the samples of her blood to certified labs. Then, you would compare the Theranos machine's (alleged) 4-hour test results against the standard method done by doctors via labs, which take 2 to 7 days for conclusive results. If the Theranos machine and the conventional lab results produce the same findings regarding the blood makeup of each person, you could conclude the Theranos machine works and in a fraction of the time.

You would also repeat these steps using other volunteers with known medical conditions (diabetes, high blood pressure, HIV) and compare the results between the 4-hour Theranos machine and conventional blood testing methods, as stated above. If the Theranos machine and the standard lab results again state the same findings for people with known medical conditions, you could more conclusively conclude, the Theranos invention is working. Due to the type of apparatus she claimed she had invented, based on that set up, one would know relatively quickly if the machine works (within weeks).

Elizabeth Holmes

That's what a sensible inventor who cares about the public's health and well being would have done. However, she did none of those things because she knew her Theranos machine did not work. Even knowing the machine did not work, she put them on the market anyway, opening a location within a Walgreens (the plan was to have Theranos machines at Walgreens locations all over America).

People began having blood tests done with the Theranos machines and being told things like their cancer had returned or they had diabetes, when neither was true. The Theranos machines were producing false positives, because it didn't work. Holmes devastated real lives with her lies.

Another indication something was wrong is that the people who used the Theranos machines, including George Shultz, had their blood drawn the conventional way, where 2-4 vials were extracted. There was no small finger prick with a tiny amount extracted. Their test results also did not arrive in 4-hours. It took days. The whole thing was a scam. When the Theranos machines kept producing the false results, Holmes had her staff buy conventional blood testing machines by real manufacturers of medical equipment. She began using other brands, while falsely stating it was Theranos.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Elizabeth Holmes

After roping the reputable Walgreens name into her scam, she then tried to spool FedEx into the mess. She started making arrangements for FedEx to pick up blood samples, which was dangerous, as it could be classified as medical waste, which is not supposed to be floating around through the mail. What if HIV antibodies were present in one of the mail samples and a FedEx worker accidentally broke the vial and cut himself. Holmes was not thinking like a sane person nor did she think any of it through.

There were so many red flags, but people ignored them. Holmes even had a dog in the office that scientists warned her would contaminate blood samples, but she didn't listen, as she didn't know what she was doing and knew Theranos didn't work.

Tyler Shultz

Shultz also did the unthinkable in refusing to listen to warnings from his grandson, Tyler Shultz, 18, whom Holmes hired at the company. Tyler began telling him that Holmes is a fraud and liar deceiving the public and stealing shareholder money over a machine, Theranos, that does not work. I don't understand how someone, Shultz, takes the word of someone they don't really know, Holmes, over his own flesh and blood that he does know (Tyler).

Shultz believed the word of an insane liar with a suspect family history full of fraud, over that of his own flesh and blood. Shultz knew his grandson for 18-years. He'd only just met wild-eyed con artist and thief, Holmes. The incident caused a massive rift between Shultz and his grandson, as he tried to silence the claims of his own flesh and blood.

Shultz wanted his grandson to shut up with his fraud claims regarding Holmes and sign legal documents to silence him, which he refused to do. He began talking about his grandson behind his back, convinced the problem was with Tyler and not insane Holmes. He treated his own flesh and blood in a shameful manner for telling the truth about a psychotic madwoman, who posed a danger to public health, while fleecing investors out of near $1 billion dollars.

George Shultz permanently damaged his relationship with his grandson during the scandal, as seen on "60 Minutes" last week

What kind of example is that to set for your grandchild. How is he going to respect your opinions again after seeing that pour from you. Holmes could have killed sick people with her reckless conduct, as has been declared and adjudicated in legal documents regarding criminal charges, several health and safety board violations and fines she was forced to pay over her illegal conduct. But you tried to shut him up.

In 2015, Holmes wanted to sue Tyler for telling the truth, in going public with claims she has been engaging in dangerous fraud at the expense of sick people and investors, who had invested a fortune in her dubious company. I want you to take that in. Holmes knew she was lying the whole time and Tyler was telling the truth, but she was going to criminally abuse the legal system in dragging him into court for speaking out, with the goal of legally gagging from talking about her crimes anymore. She also stated another professed goal was to deliberately "bankrupt" him, which she would do by using fraudulently obtaining investor money and clobbering him under a mountain of legal fees and court judgments.

U.S. law is slacking in ways and this is one of the areas - people criminally abusing the court system to silence and bankrupt innocent people for speaking the truth about abuses and illegal behavior. There should be criminal penalties for doing such a thing, as it is ugly and evil. There should be a congressional act barring such behavior, containing provisions with massive penalties to offenders.

We saw it with the fraud perpetrated by cyclist, Lance Armstrong, who sued and tried to bankrupt innocent people/whistle blowers, who spoke out against him for secretly taking illegal steroids to win many medals (Olympics, Tour de France) and millions in competition money and endorsements.

Elizabeth Holmes and her neighbor, Richard Fuisz, who is a psychiatrist and former CIA agent, whom she stole patents from, resulting in a lawsuit

In 2016, Holmes' lies began to come apart, when an advertising company she paid $6,000,000, demanded written verification and proof of her claims, to meet advertising standards, before they created commercials for the Theranos machines. Holmes became belligerent and tried to force them to put the unverified claims in the ads, which she requested look like Apple print and TV adverts (see: copyright infringement).

The television show "60 Minutes" showed samples of the Theranos ads and compared them to preexisting adverts by Apple and the infringements are very apparent. Holmes really lied to herself that she was the new Steve Jobs and began ripping off Apple's copyrighted ads. She even went around dressing like Steve Jobs. Holmes' conduct raised red flags at the ad agency, forcing her to terminate the business relationship.

The advertising agency stated to "60 Minutes" that they thought the U.S. government was behind Theranos, due to the sheer number of former officials on the board. I can see how they would make that assumption. If you have a medical device company, you stock the board with people in the medical field, not people with military security clearance. Just so, if you have a computer company, you stock the board with computer scientists and engineers. Again, Theranos was suspect from the start.

Further following the line of thievery and being a con artist, Holmes began stealing patents (by Ian Gibbons and his former employer Roche) in putting her name and that of her employees on them, in acts of patent fraud and infringement. Holmes also betrayed and stole patents from her neighbor, a psychiatrist and former CIA agent, Richard Fuisz.

Elizabeth Holmes

These events would culminate into a disaster, resulting in Gibbons' suicide and a lawsuit against Holmes for patent infringement. Not long after things became worse, as Holmes was hit with criminal charges. Holmes did not know what she was doing. She had an idea, but neither she or anyone in her employ on stolen investor money, knew how to make it work. Therefore, the Theranos machines failed.

This coupled with exposé Tyler Shultz gave the Wall Street Journal was enough to trigger a Security and Exchange Commission criminal investigation in Holmes and Theranos. The government charged her with "massive fraud" (wire fraud and conspiracy).

She paid a fine of $500,000 to the SEC to resolve the charges. However, over $700 million dollars in investor money is inexplicably gone. She is facing 20-years in prison if convicted of 11 wire fraud charges. Holmes should be locked away like Bernard Madoff for the crimes she has committed.

It was also discovered Holmes, much like her dad at Enron, committed accounting fraud in grossly overstating revenues. Holmes stated in financial documents that Theranos was earning $100,000,000 in annual revenues. However, it was a lie. The government discovered Theranos only earned $100,000 per year.

Elizabeth Holmes

Holmes and Theranos were sued left, right and center by investors, which wiped them out. Forbes, Fortune and a host of other financial magazines began proclaiming Theranos "worthless" (the $9 billion evaluation stripped) as the product was a fraud and Holmes (whom they stated was worth $4.5 billion dollars) now has a net worth of $0. She likely hid some of the money though. In 2017, Fortune changed their tune and named Holmes one of "The World's Most Disappointing Leaders."

That's one of the main problems with the world today, there are people who do not believe in hard work. They want instant fame, glory and money for things they have not done or earned. It always inevitably ends in enormous disgrace, shame and loss. A few short years of glory for a lifetime of disgrace. Not to mention, permanently being embedded in history books as a fraud who fleeced others. And make no mistake, history always corrects itself. You get away with something today, it will not be so tomorrow.

It's not that the idea of 4-hour blood tests could not have worked. Under the right mind it could have been accomplished. It's the fact Holmes knew Theranos did not work and took/stole nearly $1 billion dollars from investors, while hoarding worldwide fame, over an untested product it was out of her mental capacity to produce.

There have been breakthroughs in medicine and science, such as the polio vaccine by Jonas Salk. The discovery of insulin by Dr. Fredrick G. Banting, which helps diabetics stay alive, took a few tries, but he and his team of three doctors and scientists got it right after the first failed attempts. Therefore, not everyone has the same brain. Some people are much smarter than others.

Take for instance, Albert Einstein. He left his body to science. Doctors who performed his autopsy and scientists that conducted further lab tests discovered Einstein's brain was missing a specific crease that enabled him to think in a much quicker manner. Someone of the right mental capacity may have been able to produce blood tests at a faster rate. However, as history has shown, it was not Elizabeth Holmes.