Everybodys got different levels of what they can take. [132][133][134], In May 2016 members of the Theranos board of directors were:[135], In December 2016 it was announced the Theranos management team would be restructured with the departure of Riley Bechtel. Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the [20][21] In June 2016, Walgreens terminated its partnership with Theranos. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox. Her board of directors was a whos who of government heavyweights that at a time included former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former Secretaries of Defense Gen. James Mattis and William Perry and former U.S. Dr. Phyllis Gardner, a professor of medicine at Stanford, recalled meeting Elizabeth Holmes during her freshman year of college, when an ambitious Holmes came to her with an idea. In 2015, Theranos was valued at $9 billion and with Holmes considered the youngest self-made billionaires in the US, she landed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people. The former employees feel there's "an unspoken bond" between them. Lessons from Theranos. The long-awaited trial, which will be one of the most watched financial fraud cases in recent history, is bringing back a rush of emotions for those who also believed they could make a difference. Living. Sie knnen Ihre Einstellungen jederzeit ndern, indem Sie auf unseren Websites und Apps auf den Link Datenschutz-Dashboard klicken. I remember just the way that she carried herself. (now called Threshold) in June 2004, according to Crunchbase. (c) 20182023 US Staff: List of all US companies I could tell then and there, she had this vision and came off like a cult leader, he recalled. Headquarters: So the point of having a conversation starts to diminish in the face of someone who just sees things how they want the world to be.". Before Holmes and her ex-boyfriend, Theranos former president and COO Ramesh Sunny Balwani, were indicted, the company was the subject of civil and criminal investigations, and settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In an explosive three-year investigation from The Dropout podcast, ABC News chief business, technology and economics correspondent, Rebecca Jarvis uncovers new details behind the rise and fall of Holmes and Theranos, including never-before-aired deposition tapes of Holmes, her partner Ramesh Sunny Balwani, her brother Christian, whistleblower Tyler Shultz and others. [103] She was sentenced in November 2022 to 11 years and 3 months in prison. "She wanted positive results. Maxwell, who also hopes Holmes serves time, doesnt believe Balwani coerced Holmes in connection to the alleged multimillion-dollar conspiracya sentiment echoed by multiple employees interviewed by The Daily Beast. Her code name for the Theranos miniLab was "4S," after the then-newly . When she came to me she didnt have a low voicewhen I next saw her again, she says with this low voice and Im like, Oh my god. It was quite off, Gardner said. Lying is a disgusting habit and it flows through conversations here like it's our own currency. She basically conveyed to me that I should not intervene that this is an incredibly critical juncture in the company's current fundraising. Arriola joined Theranos in 2007 as its chief design architect. We had a great conversation, Arriola said. Theranos offered those funds priority shares in exchange for a release of claims. It was something that Arriola noticed as well. Not even loyal employees were spared. Federal prosecutors allege that the pair defrauded investors by lying about the accuracy of Theranos tests and technology, and defrauded patients by providing tests that werent as accurate as advertised. And they want Holmes to pay. The tactics used by Boies in an effort to intimidate former Theranos employees and silence the Wall Street Journalprivate investigators, threats of defamation litigation and aggressive demands . Key people: All Rights Reserved. "After enough cycles of that it just felt like there were people, like myself and others, who disagreed with a lot of these decisions, were just being overlooked, again and again.. At first, Holmes vehemently denied the claims made against her and the company. He died by suicide in May 2013, the day before he was scheduled to testify in a patent dispute between the startup and Holmes erstwhile family friend, an inventor named Richard Fuisz. That ambition surfaced in her education. Tevanian ran into the same problems with trust. Theranos then raised $45 million in venture funding in July 2010. But all of that came crashing down after a series of explosive reports, starting in 2015, by. Although Theranos began as a diagnostics firm, its mounting woes and regulatory scrutiny including multiple lawsuits and an ugly legal battle with former partner Walgreens (WBA) eventually. [126][127][128] The board was criticized for consisting "mainly of directors with diplomatic or military backgrounds". Startups in cyber, defense and biotech all saw some large rounds in a week that for once was not dominated by artificial intelligence. As Barnwell tells it, Balwani informed him hed reviewed security cameras to see when Barnwell was in the building and chastised him for working only eight hours a daya strange episode also detailed in Carreyrous book. Robertson was impressed with Elizabeth Holmes and her vision. [28][29] Theranos was named the 2015 Bioscience Company of the Year by the Arizona BioIndustry Association (AzBio). That sort of feedback just went generally ignored," he said. At one point, he wanted to put hands on me, and I said that would be a bad idea., According to Barnwell, his former colleagues later told him Balwani called the cops after he drove away and claimed hed stolen from the company. [108], Theranos claimed to have developed devices to automate and miniaturize blood tests using microscopic blood volumes. Help Launch Space Satellites Or Fight Cancer With These Startup Jobs, Some Beaten-Down SPACs Recover Amid Tech Rally, The Weeks 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Anthropic And Our Next Energy Raise Huge $300M Rounds, Philly Is Not The Underdog For Life Sciences (Or Football), ShiftMed Raises $200M As Nursing Shortage Transforms Hospitals. And, you know, even when she had questions, even when things were confusing, she just still had this kind of presence about her that stuck out in my mind, Turk said on The Dropout podcast. "Joel Rosentblatt, "Theranos Investors Turn Scavengers on Wounded Unicorn's Remains", "Theranos Lays Off Most Of Its Workforce", https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/18/21185006/softbank-theranos-coronavirus-covid-lawsuit-patent-testing, "Debunked Blood-Testing Startup Theranos Is Still Getting Patents From Federal Agency", "Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes charged with massive fraud", "Securities and Exchange Commission, vs. Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, Inc., Complaint", "Theranos and CEO Elizabeth Holmes Accused of Fraud by SEC", "Theranos CEO Holmes and former president Balwani charged with massive fraud", "Elizabeth Holmes indicted on wire fraud charges, steps down from Theranos", "Theranos Founder and Former Chief Operating Officer Charged In Alleged Wire Fraud Schemes", "Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes' trial likely won't take place until next year", "Elizabeth Holmes denies destroying evidence in Theranos case", "Elizabeth Holmes Found Guilty of Four Charges of Fraud", "Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to 11 years in Theranos fraud case", "Sunny Balwani trial starts two months after Elizabeth Holmes's guilty verdict", "Former Theranos exec Sunny Balwani convicted of 12 counts of fraud", "Sunny Balwani, Elizabeth Holmes' right-hand man at Theranos, has been sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison", "Blood-Testing Firm Theranos to Dissolve", "How To Run 30 Health Tests On a Single Drop of Blood", "Here's what we know about how Theranos' 'revolutionary' technology works", "What Exactly Was The Theranos Edison Machine Supposed To Do? Then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and former Secretary of Defense William Perry sit down for a meeting with Elizabeth Holmes during a 2013 swing through Silicon Valley. I think this sort of seeds Elizabeth's grandiose vision or fantasy as it were for her business," Fuisz said. The Organization's Mission Two former employees, including Erika Cheung, who reported the . Ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes has pleaded not guilty to wire fraud charges. [137], Theranos raised millions of dollars in its first years. Reporter who broke Theranos scandal predicts outcome of trial. Fate: Klicken Sie auf Alle ablehnen, wenn Sie nicht mchten, dass wir und unsere Partner Cookies und personenbezogene Daten fr diese zustzlichen Zwecke verwenden. Theranos agreed to refund $4.65 million to the state's residents for Theranos blood testing services, providing a refund to every resident who had received a test, regardless of whether the test results were voided or corrected. Justin Sullivan/Getty For Rochelle Gibbons, Holmes' trial is. Four years after the top two Theranos executives, Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, were first indicted together on a dozen federal fraud charges stemming from their time heading up. [64] The final liquidation of the company in September 2018 rendered these investments worthless. There was a long and well-documented history of Theranos employees raising concerns and suspicions, often at great personal risk. The specific evidence in question is the history of internal testing, including accuracy and failure rates of Theranos's blood-testing systems. Micah Nies, a customer service manager said, "there was always this fear of retribution and afterward you carry it with you.. The atmosphere was so toxic you would hear the stories of people being disappeared. Arriola said that some of her colleagues also heard Elizabeth Holmes fall out of voice., It was maybe at one of the company parties, and maybe she had too much to drink or what not, but she fell out of character and exposed that that was not necessarily her true voice, Arriola said. These employees didnt know the test results wouldnt impact the actual treatments given to these cancer patients. [42][43] At that time, the Cleveland Clinic announced that it would work to verify Theranos technology. When I was asked to meet this particular person who was leading this stealth startup, I didn't know what it was at that time, and it was a bit of a clandestine meeting. Former employees have described the company as having a revolving-door culture when it came to hiring and firing. Elizabeth did do a great job of recruiting amazing people. Later on, Robertson would tell Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine, I think there are people who are the Mozarts and the Beethovens and the Newtons, the Lavoisiers and the Einsteins and the da Vincis, who come along rarely in a generational sense. Gibbons said that Theranos had pressured Ian to evade a deposition in the case. If he gets jail time, thats a cause for celebration. Yet Holmes still has her defenders. Founded in 2003 by then 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes,[3] Theranos raised more than US$700 million from venture capitalists and private investors,[4] resulting in a $10 billion valuation at its peak in 2013 and 2014. Maxwell wrote a resignation letter obtained by ABC News, in which he said: I wish I could say better things. And I decided to resign, Arriola said. "I think it very much connects to this paradise lost kind of a family mythology.. The others, who did not want their names used, say they are still afraid of retribution from Holmes and former Theranos president, Sunny Balwani. Theranos employees in 2013 and 2014, respectively, were the whistleblowers that outed the . She now wanted to create a portable device that could run any blood test with just a drop or two of blood from the finger. It wasn't long before she recruited Avie Tevanian, once Steve Jobs right hand at Apple. And now shes playing the meek, poor mother, Gibbons said. Directed by Alex Gibney, it made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival and was released to the general public in March 2019 on HBO platforms. Ana and others involved in recruiting having hyped it up so much, I had just gone in there with this expectation that I was meeting brilliance like meeting the next Steve Jobs, next Zuckerberg," he said. Balwanis trial is expected to begin next year. Since Theranos was a private company, Holmes was allowed to stay on as CEO but had to give up financial and voting control of the company, in addition to paying a $500,000 fine and returning $18.9 million in Theranos . That was viewed as ridiculous by Theranos employees. [78] On May 1, 2017, Theranos announced that it had reached an undisclosed settlement with Partner Fund Management LP (PFM). Holmes was born in Washington, D.C. in 1984. Im going to fix you, Balwani allegedly warned. After high school, Holmes' academic excellence and drive led her to Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley. But like the movie Speed, she would never take her foot off the gas pedal.". Palo Alto-based Theranos was officially dissolved in 2018. Arriola, who would often arrive to work early and cross paths with Holmes, said she also started to notice other behavior that surprised her. Elizabeth is portrayed as a charlatan, and I mean, thats probably somewhat correct, he said. Employees werent supposed to communicate with each other about their tasks, they also were advised not to reveal the company name on social media sites like LinkedIn. This was likely because of a well-known Edison quote: "I've not failed. "[33][34] Attempting to boost the company's credibility, Holmes invited then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to tour their facility. [122], Theranos was headquartered in the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, California. [154] A television drama miniseries with the same name, based on the eponymous podcast, premiered on Hulu in the US, Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ internationally on March 3, 2022, with Amanda Seyfried playing Holmes. He was fired on the spot for not being a "team player.". They were extremely sharp and knew the industry very well and they just vanished, Maxwell said. Bei der Nutzung unserer Websites und Apps verwenden wir, unsere Websites und Apps fr Sie bereitzustellen, Nutzer zu authentifizieren, Sicherheitsmanahmen anzuwenden und Spam und Missbrauch zu verhindern, und, Ihre Nutzung unserer Websites und Apps zu messen, personalisierte Werbung und Inhalte auf der Grundlage von Interessenprofilen anzuzeigen, die Effektivitt von personalisierten Anzeigen und Inhalten zu messen, sowie, unsere Produkte und Dienstleistungen zu entwickeln und zu verbessern. Founded in 2003 by then-19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos raised more than US$700 million from venture capitalists and private investors, resulting in a $10 billion valuation at its peak in Continue Reading 3 Sponsored by Toptal Hire High Caliber Developers Fast. He told me straight to my face, The only reason you got hired is because I wasnt in the country at the time, said Barnwell. Watch the two-hour documentary, "The Dropout," THIS FRIDAY, March 15, 2019, at 9 p.m. on ABC. [25] Theranos fought back against the Journal's investigation, sending lawyers after sources in the story, including Shultz, in an effort to stop them from providing information to the press. And I was like, 'Huh, OK. They each arrived at Theranos with different perspectives, but looking back say their views are crystal clear about what went on inside the company. Holmes wanted the screen to resemble the iPhone screen and for the casing to look like the original Mac. Hopefully they find her guilty, Sunny too, and we all just move on. Elizabeth Holmes I wouldnt listen to Sunny and everybody knew it. Her precocious confidence started at a young age. Here's four ways you can: 1. Elizabeth Holmes, founder and former chief executive officer of Theranos Inc., leaves federal court in San Jose, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019. One former machinist wrote, "She is a hard working woman and . [30], In February 2015 Stanford professor John Ioannidis wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association that no peer-reviewed research from Theranos had been published in medical research literature. [118], In August 2016 the company introduced a new robotic capillary blood testing unit named "miniLab" at the 2016 annual meeting of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, but did not present any data supporting the claimed abilities of the device. In interviews with The Daily Beast, Maxwell and other former Theranos employees said the tech unicorns stomping grounds were replete with high turnover, bizarre loyalty pledges, fears of legal retaliation, and the tracking of employees hours, email and computer activity, and even who they had lunch with. With Toptal, hiring senior technology experts takes <48 hours. Walgreens, Theranos most high-profile partner, later sued the testing startup after reports questioning the validity of its tests came out, alleging a breach of contract. That same year, then Vice President Joe Biden visited the Theranos lab in Palo Alto and praised Holmes as an inspiration. "Those of us who left Theranos before it all crumbled down, we're on the other side of it now with good careers. But it all came crashing down. As of August 1st 2016, Theranos employed 790 individuals, but last October fired 340 staff members and closed all of its clinical labs. Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily. Maxwell said Holmes repeatedly lied to employees and that he eventually learned from engineers that the technology wasnt functional. The idea was simply that she was going to make a microfluidic patch to sample blood, to test for infectious organisms, and then deliver antibiotics through the same microfluidic channels. Gardner said on The Dropout podcast. Theres an anecdote where shes 9 or 10 years old and shes asked by a relative, 'What do you want to do when you grow up? Another employee who worked at Theranos, who quit after it became apparent the company was what she calls a "house of cards," asked not to be named in fear of Holmes and Balwani retaliating. Recently unsealed court records indicate Holmes defense might rely on her bombshell claims that Balwani controlled and abused her, and that this alleged misconduct affected her mental state and her capacity to make decisions. She said Holmes was unfazed. She attracted both high-profile. And the relative says dont you want to be president? Maxwell recalled learning from other employees that the technology wasnt working and the science wasnt matching up. It became clear that without technology, the designers became unnecessary. [68][69][70][71] In January 2017, Theranos announced that it had laid off a further 41% of its workforce, or approximately 155 people, and closed the last remaining blood-testing facility after the lab failed a second major U.S. regulatory inspection. Find People by Employers You can rekindle an old relationship, reconnect with a long-lost friend, former boss, business acquaintance who might be useful in your new line of work. As Carreyrou points out in his book, teams of developers wrote the Windows operating system at only 1,000 lines per year. We want to hear from you. The software engineer finally quit after Balwani called him into a meeting and demanded he work at least 60 hours a week. If convicted, they each face a maximum fine of $250,000 and 20 years in prison. She could have chosen any number of off-ramps and changed the trajectory of the company. [63], In July 2016 Theranos announced that the CMS had revoked its Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certificate and issued sanctions prohibiting its owners and operators from owning or operating a clinical laboratory for two years, suspension of approval to receive Medicare and Medicaid payments, and a civil monetary penalty. Among the large VC and private equity firms to invest in the company were. reporter John Carreyrou, who called into question the efficacy of Theranos technology. Theranos was once valued at $9 billion, and Forbes magazine in 2015 estimated Holmes' net worth at $4.5 billion. Some describe themselves as survivors of a startup ruled by paranoia, subterfuge, bullying, and retaliation. [92] Theranos was still being issued patents into 2019 due to the lengthy patent application process. It was like actively kind of trying to foster thiscompetition, Vollmer said. Any equity investments in the company were made worthless by the shutdown. She recruited Channing Robertson, a chemical-engineering professor at Stanford, to be a technical advisor and the company's first board member during its early years. In the Theranos case, insufficient due diligence and fraudulent business practices led to the losses for investors. Founded: She inquired as to whether or not she could work in my lab. Robertson said in a deposition obtained by ABC News and featured in The Dropout.". Lawyers for Balwani and Holmes didnt return messages left by The Daily Beast. Inspection", "Theranos closes its last remaining blood-testing lab after it reportedly failed an inspection", "Theranos to fire 41 percent of workforce in second round of cuts", "Arizona AG plans to sue Theranos over blood-testing devices", "Theranos Investors Say They Were Pressured to Abandon Lawsuit", "Theranos Secretly Bought Outside Lab Gear, Ran Fake Tests: Court Filings", "Theranos Reaches Settlement with Partner Fund Management", "Theranos agrees to 2-year ban on clinical blood work", "Theranos, Arizona Attorney General Reach Agreement on Full Restitution to State Consumers", "With $4.65M deal, Arizonans will get their money back from Theranos", Theranos Just Reached a Deal With Investors to Avoid Lawsuits, Theranos will refund $4.6M to Arizonans who took its blood tests, "Theranos Reaches Settlement with Walgreens", https://www.cbinsights.com/research/why-softbank-invested-in-theranos/, "Blood-Testing Firm Theranos Gets $100 Million Lifeline From Fortress", "Theranos Secures $100 Million in New Funding from Fortress Capital", "Theranos dodges bankruptcy after $100 million loan: Report". Holmes had made a deal with a major drug company to let Theranos test its technology on terminal cancer patients in a study taking place in Tennessee. They worked at the start-up in 2013 and 2014. Elizabeth Holmes Chairman Seth Michelson Chief Scientific Officer Seth Michelson is a Chief Scientific Officer at Theranos and is based in United States. THERANOS Salaries. The most obvious way is to create a workplace that celebrates them every day with a supportive culture, inclusive benefits and stellar leadership. In January 2017 the Theranos board of directors included:[136], It was also announced in November 2016 that the celebrity-studded "board of counselors" would be scrapped in January 2017. [77] The suit also alleged that Theranos had misled company directors about its practices concerning laboratory testing and that it had secretly bought lab equipment to run fake demonstrations. Why Employee-owned Companies Are Better at Building Worker Wealth November 11, 2022; . On Dec. 29, 2016, Theranos agreed to a contingent settlement with Keith Rupert Murdoch, which would finalize if Theranos settled with any another investor. "We would get bad news and the next day she would hold a town hall and everybody's eyes would glaze over. I miss Ian every day, she said. [49] After the 2015 inspection, Theranos announced that it would voluntarily suspend its tests apart from the FDA-approved herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) test. "He's got more desperation in the sense of money and she's got a life to look forward to now that she's trying to recreate. Former Theranos employees. [139] The company had about $45 million total fundraising after Series B and Series C funding in 2006. [124], From its incorporation in 2003 until 2018, Holmes was the company's chief executive officer. [47][48] It was eventually revealed that the FDA had classified Theranos's device, called a nanotainer, as a Class II medical device, meaning that Theranos would need to use special labels, meet certain performance standards and perform post-market surveillance of the device. United States District Court for the Northern District of California, American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, "Report: Theranos Just Laid Off the Vast Majority of Its Employees", "Amended Statement by Foreign Corporation", "Elizabeth Holmes: The Breakthrough of Instant Diagnosis", "Theranos: From Unicorn Hype to 'Massive Fraud', "The wildly hyped $9 billion blood test company that no one really understands", "Exclusive: How Elizabeth Holmes's House of Cards Came Tumbling Down", "The Blood Unicorn Theranos Was Just a Fairy Tale", "Theranos Under Federal Criminal Investigation, Adding to Its Woes", "From $4.5 Billion To Nothing: Forbes Revises Estimated Net Worth of Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes", "How Playing the Long Game Made Elizabeth Holmes a Billionaire", "Theranos: The biggest biotech you've never heard of", "This Woman Invented a Way to Run 30 Lab Tests on Only One Drop of Blood", "Bringing Painless Blood Testing to the Pharmacy", "The rise and fall of Theranos, the blood-testing startup that went from a rising star in Silicon Valley to facing fraud charges over a wild 15-year span", "Everything You Need to Know About the Theranos Saga So Far", "Safeway severs ties with Theranos as $350M deal collapses", "Walgreens to offer affordable and needle-free blood tests in more stores (updated)", "Theranos didn't work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from, drug company says", "Walgreen Sues Theranos, Seeks $140 Million in Damages", "Theranos, Walgreens reportedly reach a deal to settle suit for under $30 million", "Theranos, Cleveland Clinic CEO's on innovation partnership", "We'll test Theranos tech: Cleveland Clinic CEO", "Philadelphia health insurer to make lab testing easier for Medicaid members", "Fingerprick Lab Test Startup Theranos Strikes Insurance Deal", "Disruptive diagnostics firm Theranos gets boost from FDA", "Theranos gets another FDA approval for its blood test", "This technology firm was named Arizona's Bioscience Company of the Year", "Theranos' $9 Billion Evaporated: Stanford Expert Whose Questions Ignited The Unicorn's Trouble", "A scientist just raised 4 serious questions about the blood test that made Elizabeth Holmes a billionaire", "Biden visits Theranos lab as part of healthcare innovation summit", "Hot Startup Theranos Has Struggled With Its Blood-Test Technology", "Theranos Whistleblower Shook the Company And His Family", "Report Claims Theranos Struggling With Blood Test Tech", "Theranos Attacks Wall Street Journal (Again) in a Rebuttal You'll Need a Medical Degree to Understand", "Walgreens halts expansion of Theranos centers", "E-mails reveal concerns about Theranos's FDA compliance date back years", "The FDA's notes from its visit to Theranos' labs don't look good", "Two FDA Inspection Reports Show Theranos' Blood-Collection 'Nanotainer' Was an Uncleared Class II Medical Device | Dark Daily", "Blood-Testing Start-Up Theranos Is In 'Pause Period', Says CEO Elizabeth Holmes", "FDA inspector slams Theranos for poor quality management", "Arizona inspectors find Theranos lab issues", "US government says Theranos lab poses 'immediate jeopardy to patient safety', "Regulators Propose Banning Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes for at Least Two Years", "Another partner just asked Theranos to stop running blood tests", "Theranos Under Fire as U.S. "[112], The blood sample was to be collected via a finger prick and then transferred to the nanotainer through Theranos's sample collection device. He also Holmes started ignoring him and eventually had another board member, venture capitalist Donald Lucas Sr., confront him. After many missed deadlines and questionable results from a trial clinic at Safeway's corporate offices, the deal was terminated in 2015. They clearly had someone monitoring everything I was doing and publishing online. But Maxwell said that it wasnt long before they realized that they were designing a technology that didnt really exist. I think she just wanted fame at all costs., Barnwell also figured out that the blood-testing deviceone that Holmes vowed would change the worldwas far from revolutionary. CNBC spoke to four former Theranos employees about the upcoming trial of embattled CEO Elizabeth Holmes. [148] Major investments had been made by the Walton family ($150 million), Rupert Murdoch ($121 million), Betsy DeVos ($100 million) and the Cox family (of Cox Media Group) ($100 million). According to Gibbons, Theranos created a culture of harassment and paranoia. It's cathartic to speak about.". Arriola wasnt the only former Apple employee that Elizabeth hired. Theranos recruited him at age 41 from another healthcare company in San Diego. Theranos dubbed its blood collection vessel the "nanotainer" and its analysis machine the "Edison". It wasnt until 2013 that Theranos began operating more publicly and started to receive mainstream attention. [87][88][89] The loan was secured by Theranos's patents. She's very charismatic in the sense that she knows how to talk to people.". Prosecutors laid out five categories of "misleading statements" Holmes allegedly promoted: those related to Theranos's proprietary testing device, its military contracts, pharmaceutical work,. We knew Theranos to be a deceptive organization, but we had to chill out and not say anything about it because they would make our lives difficult, said Justin Maxwell, who worked at the company as a designer from 2007 to 2008. 1 Ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes has pleaded not guilty to wire fraud charges. Vollmer says that raising concerns internally wasnt tolerated. [12] She started developing lab-on-a-chip technology for blood tests, with the idea to start a company that would make blood tests cheaper, more convenient and accessible to consumers.