In her Theranos fraud case, Elizabeth Holmes is speaking for herself

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In her Theranos fraud case, Elizabeth Holmes is speaking for herself

From birth to the class 2006 in her first day of testimony

By Nov 19, 2021, 10:22pm EST

Elizabeth Holmes, her hair lowered and her makeup dull relative to her Theranos days, spelled her key out for the court. After the prosecution rested its suit in the morning, the defensive measure called her as their third base witness, about an time of day earlier the end of the day. She wore a navy blazer with a white blouse — not united of the famous black turtlenecks has made an appearance in court during the months the display case against her has dragged on.

Holmes is facing 11 counts of wire pretender from her time as founder and CEO of Theranos. Though her testimony now is the showtime clock time she's spoken for herself, we've heard her phonation already — in the recordings of Fortune diarist Roger Parloff. In those recordings, she lies confidently about her device's capabilities. And the lies Parloff tape-recorded were consistent with the lies her investors testified that she told them.

I serve non think I am the only person who's wondered how she'll explain this. Now, we are expiration to get exterior.

And so far Holmes hasn't aforementioned much — we've learned all but her education, the time she worn-out at Stanford, and that she dropped bent on manikin Theranos. When her testimony ended today, we were still in 2006, well before the geological period the authorities alleges some fraud took place, which means virtually of the racy stuff will have to wait until next week.

Holmes was cheerful, smiling at her attorney, Kevin Downey. She seemed relaxed and focused. Everyone I cognize has asked me about her voice. For what it's worth, the most obnoxious part of The Voice Discourse is that most of these writers have no melodious education. She is non and could ne'er induce been "baritone," as Inc wrote — she's not even a strain! — and the idea that she'd go up "several octaves" when she speaks commonly, as Whoremaster Carreyrou writes in Bad Blood, suggests a "proper" pitch higher than the speaking voice of Kristen Chenoweth. That is nonsense.

Holmes sounds equal a normal low to Maine, though she has a habit of dropping her voice to perforate words she wants to emphasize. And then, she sounds like she has a cold, or mayhap, as Jezebel put it, like she's victimization her "impression of a stupid man" voice. If it's an affectation, information technology's unrivalled she's had so long that it's natural to her now. Anyhow, most of her talking to International Relations and Security Network't at the bottom of her mountain range.

But the voice is part of the famous Holmes persona, which I expect we will be listening more about in the coming days. The defense has indicated that they anticipate to continue questioning her totally adjacent week; if the criminal prosecution's hybridisation-exam is shorter than two days, I volition be surprised.

The story Holmes told in her testimony is well-known. She born out of Stanford University and used the rest of the money her parents had saved from her college educational activity, as well as both debt and more or less money from family friends, to found a fellowship called Time period Cures. She ulterior changed the name to Theranos.

In the beginning, the idea was to create a pill surgery spot, one that would analyze a soul's blood, allowing for more-precise medication dosing. But masses seemed Sir Thomas More interested in a tabletop device for rakehell analysis, kind of than a pill or patch, so she switched her focus.

She adorned money from Don George Lucas, an investor superfine known for his association with Oracle, and Larry Ralph Waldo Ellison, among others. Lucas wanted to address to some of the pharmaceutical companies Theranos had been working with as part of his due industriousness, so we were shown a 2005 email where Holmes introduced George Lucas to someone she'd been working with at Pfizer. We too saw the reply: that he'd be happy to talk to George Lucas.

With the money Holmes raised, she created a device called Theranos 1.0, a photo of which was displayed for the courtroom, and which to me looked like someone had attached a thick antenna to a Thomas Gray printer.

During that time, the business sector plan was to work with dose companies on their clinical trials. She rundle to Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Bristol Myers Squibb. Theranos signed agreements with GSK in Sep 2006, and with Pfizer in November 2006. The company likewise did demos for Novartis and Eli Lilly.

We were even shown an email from Holmes to the entire staff at Theranos more or less the Novartis demo. In the November 19, 2006 email, she wrote, "We nailed this indefinite. You all did an incredible job in making this happen — this is the Theranos way. We are happening a roll to arrange what we need to cause next calendar month and in '07."

We also saw a 2006 electronic mail from Holmes to Bob Grady, a partner at the Carlyle Aggroup, when Holmes was raising money. In it, she lists people at Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and Novartis he can talk to if atomic number 2 wants to confirm their work with Theranos. Non wholly investors asked for this data, she testified.

And then we broke for the 24-hour interval. The historic period in which the governing alleges fraud took place is still ahead of United States. We know from the opening statements Oliver Wendell Holmes may blame Sunny Balwani, her co-suspect World Health Organization is being tried one by one; the defense recommended that her mistake was trusting him overmuch.

She may also say that he abused her. In court filings opened in August, she alleged that he controlled what she ate, how she treated, and all her communications. (Balwani denies this.) The abuse allegations excuse wherefore the two are being tried separately; an expert on scurrilous relationships, Mindy Mechanic, is on the defense's witness list, though she may not glucinium called.

In her coming testimonial, which I expect to comprise drawn-out, I look forward to her account for the unusually consistent lies several masses testified to — that Theranos devices were used in Islamic State of Afghanistan and on military helicopters, that Theranos devices could do Sir Thomas More than 200 tests, and that the companion did not expend competitors' machines for tests. I am particularly interested in the coming cross-examination, when the government can use her all-embracing body of statements, including those in the press, to ask her questions.

Simply in good order now, we've fair heard the story of a fledgling startup — one that would not be interesting OR unusual if information technology were non for how the company ended.

In her Theranos fraud case, Elizabeth Holmes is speaking for herself

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/19/22792606/elizabeth-holmes-fraud-witness-stand-surprise

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