Once rated by Forbes as the youngest self-made female Billionaire base on her company’s $9millon valuation, 37 years old Elizabeth Holmes was on Monday, found guilty of defrauding her investors through her biotech startup company by jurors.
Nearly a decade ago, Holmes raised $945 million from high-profile investors including the family of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Rupert Murdoch and the Walton family of Walmart fame.
To lure investors, witnesses testified that Holmes’ claims about the company’s blood-testing technology were either exaggerated or false. In the end, jurors convicted Holmes of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She faces up to 20 years in prison.
Holmes is a rare example of a tech exec being brought to book over a company flaming out, in a sector littered with the carcasses of money-losing companies that once promised untold riches.
Her case shone a spotlight on the blurred line between the hustle that characterizes the industry and outright criminal dishonesty.
Jurors took seven days of deliberations to reach their verdict, finding her guilty of four counts of tricking investors into pouring money into what she claimed was a revolutionary testing system.
But the panel — who had listened to weeks of sometimes complex evidence — also acquitted her on four charges and could not reach a verdict on three others.
“The guilty verdicts in this case reflect Ms. Holmes’ culpability in this large-scale investor fraud and she must now face sentencing for her crimes,” US Attorney Stephanie Hinds said in a prepared statement read outside the courthouse by a representative.
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