Holmes’ fraud, conspiracy case goes to the jury
The jury that will weigh 11 charges of fraud and conspiracy against former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes finally got the case Friday afternoon after a three-month trial that captivated Silicon Valley.
The hand-off came after lawyers for the opposing sides wrapped up a second day of painstaking final arguments to sum up their respective interpretations of the evidence submitted to the jury. That included the testimony of 32 witnesses — including Holmes herself — and more than 900 exhibits.
The eight men and four women on the jury began their deliberations late on Friday and will take the weekend off before resuming Monday morning to decide whether Holmes turned her blood-testing startup into a massive scam. If convicted on all counts, Holmes, 37, could face up to 20 years in prison.
In his final attempt to persuade the jury to acquit, Holmes lawyer Kevin Downey likened her final days running a then-reeling Theranos to a captain valiantly trying to save a sinking ship.
Had Holmes committed any crimes, she would have been scurrying to jump overboard like a scared rat, Downey told jurors as he wrapped up roughly five hours of closing arguments. Federal prosecutors spent three hours Thursday explaining why the jury should convict her.
Referring to a 2016 turning point that threatened to ruin Theranos, Downey asked the jury: “Did she leave? No she stayed. Why? Because she believed in this technology.“
As he did Thursday, Downey again depicted Holmes as a well-meaning entrepreneur who never stopped trying to perfect Theranos’ blood-testing technology and use it to improve health care.
“She believed she was building a technology that would change the world,“Downey proclaimed Friday.
Federal prosecutor John Bostic offered a rebuttal, arguing that Holmes made her attempts to salvage Theranos under intense scrutiny that gave her few other options. He cited evidence to argue that she consistently sought to deceive people whenever she thought she could get away with her alleged ruse.
“At so many forks in the road, she chose the wrong path,” Bostic said.
Bostic’s rebuttal echoed many of the themes touched upon in Thursday’s arguments, when fellow prosecutor Jeffrey Schenk cast Holmes as a charlatan who brazenly lied to become rich and famous. Those purported goals were achieved in 2014 when Holmes became a media sensation with an estimated fortune of $4.5 billion based on her 50% stake in Theranos.
The trial revolves around allegations that Holmes duped investors, business partners and patients about Theranos’ technology. She repeatedly claimed that the company’s new testing device could scan for hundreds of diseases and other problems with a few drops of blood taken with a finger prick instead of a needle stuck in a vein.