Holmes takes witness stand
Judge nixes 1 fraud charge, leaving 11 against startup founder
SAN JOSE >> In a surprising twist, failed startup founder Elizabeth Holmes took the witness stand at her trial Friday, defending herself against criminal fraud charges involving her defunct Palo Alto blood-testing startup Theranos.
Speaking with confidence — and frequently a small smile — Holmes spoke directly to the central allegation in the case: that she intended to defraud patients and investors, claiming her technology could conduct a full range of blood tests on small samples when she knew it had serious accuracy problems. Asked by one of her lawyers, “Did you believe that Theranos had developed technology that was capable of performing any blood test?” Holmes responded, “I did.”
Holmes, who founded the Palo Alto blood-testing startup at age 19 in 2003, is charged with allegedly bilking investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars and defrauding patients with false claims that the company’s machines could conduct a full range of tests using just a few drops of blood, when she knew the technology had serious accuracy problems. She and her co-accused, former company president
Sunny Balwani, have denied the allegations. Balwani is to be tried next year.
Her testimony was a striking development, and a risky move, in a trial that has captured national attention, primed by two documentaries, a bestselling book and news that Jennifer Lawrence will star as Holmes in an upcoming movie.
One of the biggest questions in the case has been whether Holmes herself would take the stand to try to reshape the narrative about her meteoric rise and fall: Holmes’ company soared to a valuation of $9 billion, but went