BLOOD ON HER HANDS?
Jury selection in trial of startup founder
Jury selection started Tuesday for the trial of Elizabeth Holmes, a former Silicon Valley star facing charges tied to her blood-testing startup Theranos.
Holmes, whose failed biotech company was once valued at $9 billion, was indicted for wire fraud in June 2018, alongside Theranos’ former chief operating officer, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani. They’ve both pleaded not guilty to charges that include defrauding investors, doctors and patients by falsely claiming the company could revolutionize medical lab testing, citing unique technology developed to deploy a wide range of tests with only a few drops of blood.
Government lawyers have said they intend to prove Holmes knew her test, nicknamed “The Edison,” could not accurately detect diseases like cancer and diabetes without an ongoing rotation of needles.
This week, her legal team, alongside prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of California, will search for 17 jurors among a pool of nearly 200 people. They’ve said the process could take longer than usual, given Holmes’ high profile.
Potential jurors have been asked to fill out a 28-page questionnaire, asking them about their media consumption habits, medical history and what they know about the more than 200 possible witnesses who could appear over the course of the trial.
Patients, some of who will appear at the trial, were allegedly given inaccurate test results relating to conditions such as HIV, cancer and miscarriages.
A Stanford University dropout, Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 when she was 19. Over the years, she transformed into a media darling, sporting dark turtlenecks like Steve Jobs wore, and nabbed impressive investors such as Henry Kissinger and Rupert Murdoch. She was also briefly lauded as the world’s youngest self-made billionaire before a series of damning articles published in 2015 by The Wall Street Journal sparked widespread scrutiny over the company, resulting in its eventual collapse in 2018.
The same year Theranos was dissolved, Holmes settled with the Securities and Exchange
Commission to pay $500,000 without admitting or denying the charges.
Her attorneys reportedly intend to argue that her role in the con was primarily influenced by the allegedly abusive relationship she at one point shared with Balwani. According to court documents obtained by NPR, Holmes claimed her former boyfriend was incredibly controlling, overseeing things like how she dressed and what she ate.
“This pattern of abuse and coercive control continued over the approximately decadelong duration of Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani’s relationship, including during the period of the charged conspiracies,” her lawyers wrote.
Holmes’ legal team has contended Balwani’s actions were equivalent to “dominating her and erasing her capacity to make decisions,” including her ability to “deceive her victims.”
Lawyers for Balwani, 56, have called Holmes’ allegations “outrageous, salacious and inflammatory.” The businessman will be appearing in court at his own separate trial in February 2022. Holmes’ trial, meanwhile, is set for December. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison.