Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Former Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes (L) leaves the Robert F. Peckham U.S. Federal Court on January 14, 2019 in San Jose, California.
- Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and former Theranos President Sunny Balwani have been charged with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
- The charges stem from allegations that the two engaged in a scheme to defraud investors and a separate scheme to defraud doctors and patients while at the blood-testing company, the Department of Justice said in June 2018.
- A trial in the case is set to begin next summer, with jury selection the week of July 28, 2020 and opening statements on August 4, 2020.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Elizabeth Holmes will soon have her day in court.
On Friday, a judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of California said that the trial for the founder of the blood-testing company Theranos and its former president Sunny Balwani will begin next summer. Jury selection will begin the week of July 28, 2020, and opening statements will start August 4, a spokesman for the US Attorney's office said.
Holmes and her attorneys had been pushing for a delay in setting the court date, asking prosecutors for millions of documents.
In June 2018, the Department of Justice charged Holmes and Balwani with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, stemming from allegations that the two engaged in a scheme to defraud investors and a separate scheme to defraud doctors and patients while at the blood-testing company. Both Balwani and Holmes have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The DOJ said at the time that Holmes and Balwani could face up to 20 years in prison each, and a $250,000 fine plus restitution, for each count on which they're convicted.
Theranos officially shut down in 2018, 15 years after it was founded.
The blood-testing startup had racked up a $9 billion valuation with its big vision to test for a number of conditions using just a small sample of blood. Holmes was featured on the covers of business magazines and included on lists of top executives, and had a net worth of about $5 billion.
Then in October 2015, questions started being raised about how the company's technology worked, prompted by investigative stories from Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou.
The final year
In March 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Holmes and Theranos with "massive fraud." Holmes and Theranos settled with the SEC, and as part of the settlement, Holmes paid a fine and cannot be a director or officer of a publicly traded company for 10 years. Balwani, who employees saw as an "enforcer," left the company in May 2016 after working there for seven years. He has also been charged with "massive fraud" by the SEC.
Facing setbacks in its Zika test development in the spring of 2018, Theranos laid off the majority of its remaining employees and appealed to investors for more funding.
Never miss out on healthcare news. Subscribe to Dispensed, our weekly newsletter on pharma, biotech, and healthcare.
Holmes stepped down as CEO of Theranos in June the same day the DOJ charged Holmes with wire fraud. The company officially shut down in the fall of 2018. Vanity Fair's Nick Bilton reported that in the final days of the company, Holmes got a Siberian husky puppy named Balto, who accompanied her to work but wasn't potty trained, making a mess of the company's offices and labs.
- Read more:
- The rise and fall of Theranos, the blood-testing startup that went from Silicon Valley darling to facing fraud charges
- Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is engaged and living in a luxury apartment with her hotel-heir fiancé, William 'Billy' Evans
- It's a difficult time for the 857 people in the US named Elizabeth Holmes who weren't the creators of Theranos
- The mysterious story of former Theranos president Sunny Balwani, who was in a relationship with Elizabeth Holmes and now faces criminal charges
