Theranos fraudster seeks retrial after witness ‘remorse’

THE convicted fraudster who founded failed US blood testing company Theranos is demanding a retrial after a key witness against her expressed remorse for his testimony.

Elizabeth Holmes, 38, was convicted in January of wire fraud by a California jury on four counts of fraud for her role in the $9bn (£7.8bn) collapse of Theranos and faces up to 20 years in prison.

Theranos had claimed its blood-testing Edison machines were able to detect dozens of diseases with a pin prick of blood, but they never worked properly. A key witness against Ms Holmes was Dr Adam Rosendorff, a Theranos laboratory director. According to a court filing, Dr Rosendorff turned up at Ms Holmes’ house in August claiming his testimony had been twisted by the prosecution.

Dr Rosendorff asked Ms Holmes’ husband to speak to the former founder, but he refused. Mr Rosendorff then told her husband, William Evans, he was seeking to speak to her because it would be “healing” for them.

Dr Rosendorff said that he had “tried to answer the questions honestly at Ms Holmes’ trial, but the government tried to make everyone look bad”. Ms Holmes’ lawyers said: “Under any interpretation of his statements, the statements warrant a new trial.”

The Theranos founder’s legal team have argued the start-up failed despite the best efforts of its executives and that Ms Holmes denied trying to mislead investors.