The American start-up had been valued up to nearly $ 10 billion by praising a revolutionary blood test technique, which had proven to be inbound.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
The former star of Silicon Valley Elizabeth Holmes, found guilty of fraud in January, was fixed on his sentence, Friday, November 18, almost twenty years after having founded his start-up, Theranos, who promised a revolution Health diagnostics. The former leader, who is 38, was sentenced to eleven years in prison. The prosecution had requested fifteen years in prison and the restitution of $ 800 million to its victims.
The accused, pregnant, has until April 27 to start his sentence, said judge Edward Davila, who had chaired the entrepreneur’s trial, found guilty in January to have lied to investors on advances real of his business.
“blinded by ambition”, Elizabeth Holmes “has defrauded hundreds of millions of dollars to dozens of investors” and “endangered patients”, justified the prosecutor Stephanie Hinds, accusing the boss Fallen not to assume its responsibility.
horror of bites
The defense pleaded for a maximum sentence of a year and a half. Elizabeth Holmes does not represent a danger to society, she did not derive financial benefits from this case and therefore does not deserve to spend years in prison for failing in her “ambitious project”, justified her lawyers. “M Holmes is punished every day for his offense, for years and for the rest of his life,” they noted in their argument given to the Court on Tuesday. And “there is no reason to believe that it will run a listed business in the future,” they continued.
Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos in 2003, at only 19 years old, in the idea of making a fast, painless and cheaper blood diagnostic tool than those in traditional laboratories. Using a very worked story and appearance, she had reached the confidence of summit in a few years and to raise funds from prestigious investors attracted by the profile of this young woman, a rarity in the Male world of Californian engineers.
The story was beautiful. As a child, she hated bites. She therefore wanted to invent a machine that would make hundreds of blood diagnostics from a single drop of blood, taken on the tip of the finger.
Request for rejected
The media magnate Rupert Murdoch, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger and James Mattis, Donald Trump’s defense secretary, were convinced by Elizabeth Holmes’s project. At its peak, the company was valued nearly $ 10 billion. In 2015, the scandal broke out when the Wall Street Journal reveals that the machine has never worked .
The old owner had submitted in September a request to revise the trial -rejected -, highlighting, among others, the turnaround of a key witness, Adam Rosendorff, who went to his home this summer And he met with his companion, William Evans, to express regrets. The words of Mr. Rosendorff did not however dispute the conclusions of the investigation, but only the presentation of the facts at the hearing, and they were very vague, argued judge Edward Davila.
Ramesh Balwani, the former companion of Elizabeth Holmes and director of operations at Theranos, was tried separately and also found guilty of fraud. His sentence must be pronounced on December 7.