The businesswoman faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each charge filed, although she is likely to evade the maximum sentence.
A jury in San Jose, California, found Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the defunct biotech company Theranos, guilty on Monday of defrauding investors in her company, CNBC reports .
After seven days of deliberations, Holmes, 37, was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud against his investors in order to raise funds for Theranos.
The businesswoman was acquitted of four other charges for defrauding patients who used blood tests manufactured by her company. At the same time, the jury did not reach any verdict in relation to three other charges of investor fraud, so the judge in charge of the case, Edward Davila, announced that a mistrial will be declared in relation to them.
Holmes faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each charge brought, although she is not likely to receive the maximum sentence. Davila is expected to declare the day on which the sentence will be handed down during the hearing to address the three charges without a verdict, which will be held next week.
The ‘Steve Jobs’ of blood tests
Elizabeth Holmes faced 11 counts of fraud and conspiracy at trial after claiming that her company, founded in 2003, had developed a revolutionary blood test system that allegedly allowed the same results as a traditional syringe and blood test to be obtained. needle.
Thanks to her promises, Holmes was able to attract large investments for her company, reaching a maximum of 9,000 million dollars of capitalization in 2014. For her part, the businesswoman was classified by Forbes as the American woman who had amassed the greatest fortune, earning in the media the nickname of the ‘Steve Jobs’ of blood tests.
However, the company’s image fell apart in 2015 following the publication of an investigation by The Wall Street Journal that shed light on the Theranos fraud and its ‘innovative’ technology that was not really working . Holmes’s ex-boyfriend, Ramesh Balwani, is also listed as a defendant in the same proceedings and will appear in court in February.