The Theranos Fraud

Theranos was a Silicon Valley health technology company founded in 2003 by Elizabeth Holmes, who dropped out of Stanford University at 19. The company claimed to have developed revolutionary blood-testing technology that could perform hundreds of diagnostic tests from a single finger-prick of blood. At its peak, Theranos was valued at $9 billion and Holmes was celebrated as the world's youngest self-made female billionaire.

The technology did not work. Theranos was using standard commercial blood-testing equipment (made by other companies) for most tests, and its proprietary devices produced unreliable results that were not disclosed to patients or partners. Investigations by the Wall Street Journal's John Carreyrou, beginning in 2015, brought the fraud to light.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services found Theranos labs posed an "immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety" in 2016. The company closed in 2018. Holmes was convicted of fraud in January 2022 and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. Former president Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani was convicted on 12 counts and sentenced to 13 years.