Elizabeth Holmes is likely to spend tens of years behind the bars if it is convicted of having droped the investors of the blood test start-up.
Le Monde
Elizabeth Holmes, Star Fallen Biotechnology, testified Friday, November 19 at his trial for fraud, where she came before the jurors as a visionary entrepreneur, having sacrificed his savings and left a renowned university to realize his dream .
Elizabeth Holmes is likely to spend tens of years behind the bars if it is convicted of boring Theanos investors, the famous start-up specialized in the manufacture of blood tests and whose value has reached billions. of dollars, but who collapsed as a result of accusations of fraud.
“I started talking to my parents, they let me use the money saved for my studies to work on my patent, then I raised funds or borrowed money,” a She told the Federal Court of San Jose, California, Heart of Silicon Valley.
Elizabeth Holmes, who launched Theranos in 2003, at the age of 19, planned to produce on a large scale, more expensive diagnostic tools than those of traditional laboratories, thanks to methods that are supposed to allow up to At 200 analyzes from a few drops of blood. But the machines did not work.
Elizabeth Holmes stopped his studies at Stanford University in 2004, saying that she “spent his time doing research”, in contradiction with the prosecutors who accuse him of having sold a lie to deceive Investors.
“I did it by myself, I then created a business,” she said his famous hoarse voice and with his usual passion – who fueled the buzz around her in the world of technology.
Try and fail
During his testimony, Elizabeth Holmes, who now has 37 years, explained to have been transparent about the expenses of his company with one of his first investors and assured that she tried to “meet all the people who knew someone One who worked in the pharmaceutical sector or worked there “.
She arose at the helm after the prosecutors had presented their arguments on Friday, after more than eleven weeks of debate and twenty witnesses. Testify for its own defense involves significant risks because prosecutors can tackle any inconsistency between what it says to the Tribunal and its many public statements.
Elizabeth Holmes has become famous by convincing recognized donors, journalists and trading partners, that his idea was feasible and could revolutionize medical analyzes. Renowned for his gaze of steel, it regularly wore a black-collar sweater … like Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, his idol. It has seduced influential personalities, such as the Media Magnat Rupert Murdoch and the former US Defense Minister Jim Mattis, but everything rocked after a series of articles published in 2015 by the Wall Street Journal, which questioned the Operation of Theranos machines.
Before Elizabeth Holmes, the defense had called Fabrizio Bonanni to testify. Retired from the Biotechnology company AMGEN, he had been recruited to help Theranos while the start-up was facing accusations of fraud in 2016. “I admired his disposition to listen to the positions of others without being on the defensive” , said Bonanni in court. “People tend to listen and say” yes, but “Holmes never said” yes, but “”.
His defense had pleaded during the opening of the trial that she was guilty of nothing but having tried and failed to realize a visionary idea. Elizabeth Holmes is accused of fraud and conspiracy in committing fraud. If it is convicted, it could be imprisoned up to twenty years for each charge.