In March 2018, Holmes and former Theranos president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were charged with allegedly “raising more than $700 million from investors through an elaborate, years-long fraud” by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Holmes and Theranos settled with the SEC, with Holmes agreeing to pay $500,000 and be barred from serving as a director or officer of a public company for 10 years. She has not admitted or denied any wrongdoing with regard to the settlement.
Three months later, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco charged Holmes and Balwani with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
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Prosecutors alleged that Holmes and Balwani were involved in a multi-million-dollar scheme to defraud investors as well as a plan to defraud doctors and patients by claiming the company could provide its clients with cheap, fast and reliable blood tests and results.
The pair pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud, and if convicted, could face up to 20 years in prison, according to ABC News. Balwani’s trial is set to occur after Holmes’ is complete, according to Bloomberg.
The charges are a far cry from the life Holmes was living just a few years ago. In the fall of 2014, the former Theranos CEO was named one of Forbes’s richest women in America and her start-up company was valued at $9 billion.
Around 20 months later, Holmes’ net worth was estimated at $0.
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, about the rise and fall of her company Theranos was released on HBO last March.
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