Month: January 2022

A federal jury in California on Monday found Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes guilty of fraud and conspiracy. Holmes had been charged with 11 counts of fraud for claims made to investors and patients of her Silicon Valley blood-testing company.

The jury handed down a partial verdict on Monday, finding Holmes guilty of four of the 11 charges – three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was found not guilty of an additional four, and the jury remained deadlocked on the other three counts.   Sentencing will come at a later date, however, Holmes now faces a federal prison sentence of up to 20 years. The federal government also must decide whether to retry Holmes for the three counts on which the jury could not reach a verdict.

Holmes first rose to prominence in 2014 as the founder and CEO of Theranos, which duped investors out of millions by falsely purporting that its technology could run hundreds of medical tests using just a few drops of blood. In 2015, Wall Street Journal journalist John Carreyrou reported that the machine Holmes was selling — dubbed The Edison — did not actually work, and that the company was using outside technology and other subterfuge to fake positive test results. Federal authorities then investigated Holmes, indicting her in 2018.  In addition to accusations she misled to patients and physicians about the efficacy of Theranos’ blood tests, Holmes was also accused of lying to investors in 2015, telling them that Theranos would generate $1 billion in revenue when she allegedly knew the company would only generate a few hundred thousand dollars that year.

During her trial, Holmes’ defense attorneys claimed she didn’t mean to defraud investors. Holmes also testified in her own defense, saying her judgment was clouded because of the alleged sexual, psychological and emotional abuse she endured during her relationship with former Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her ex-boyfriend and co-defendant. Balwani faces the same fraud and conspiracy charges Holmes faced but will be tried separately in January.

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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal Twitter account has been suspended for repeated violations of the platform’s policies regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.  Greene still has access to her official congressional account — @RepMTG — which was not found to have violated the company policies. A Twitter spokesperson said in a statement: “We permanently suspended the account you referenced(@mtgreenee) for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy.”  Greene had shared a tweet Saturday that included a misleading chart created from unverified data pulled from a government database.  The post falsely said that there have been “extremely high amounts of COVID vaccine deaths.”

Twitter introduced its strike system in March to “educate the public on our policies and further reduce the spread of potentially harmful and misleading information on Twitter.” The strike system features five levels, with an escalating series of locks on a user’s Twitter account, beginning with a 12-hour suspension after receiving a second strike.  The 47-year-old Greene had landed her fifth strike after Twitter issued her the fourth one in August, suspending her account for a week. In the past, Greene has been suspended for publishing false information about COVID-19 vaccinations and wearing face masks.

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Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed in a statement on Sunday evening that he has tested positive for COVID-19. Austin, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, said:  “I tested positive this morning for COVID-19. I requested the test today after exhibiting symptoms while at home on leave.”  He added that his symptoms are mild and he is following his physician’s directions, referring to the CDC’s recently-updated isolation guidelines: “In keeping with those directions, and in accordance with CDC guidelines, I will quarantine myself at home for the next five days.”

Austin said he will be attending virtual meetings if possible while in quarantine: “I have informed my leadership team of my positive test result, as well as the President. My staff has begun contact tracing and testing of all those with whom I have come into contact over the last week.” Austin said that his last meeting with President Biden was on Dec. 21, “more than a week before I began to experience symptoms. I tested negative that very morning. I have not been in the Pentagon since Thursday, where I met briefly – and only – with a few members of my staff. We were properly masked and socially distanced throughout.”

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