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The Crimes of Elizabeth Holmes | A 10 Billion Dollar Fraud — Transcript

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0:00[Music]
0:02Elizabeth Holmes was just 19 years old
0:05when she dropped out of Stanford
0:07University with a dream of creating a
0:09company that would revolutionize blood
0:11testing
0:15our work is in being able to make
0:20testing more accessible they did nothing
0:22to verify that her scientific claims
0:25were true
0:26I felt like she was deceiving the public
0:31Interline the doctors you're lying The
0:33Regulators you're also lying to the
0:35public most people would call that fraud
0:37as well
0:40[Music]
0:59the Bahamas were once home to one of the
1:03richest men in modern history a 29 year
1:06old billionaire Named Sam bankman freed
1:09described by one YouTuber as the most
1:11generous billionaire in the world fast
1:14forward a year and Sam's name is now
1:17shrouded in National infamy losing his
1:20Billionaire's status when it was
1:21discovered his company FTX had been
1:24illegally using customer money to invest
1:26in worthless cryptocurrency the ordeal
1:29led to the collapse of the company that
1:31forced Sam to abandon his role as CEO
1:34shortly before being arrested at his 200
1:38million dollar estate he now faces up to
1:41115 years in federal prison for
1:44allegedly defrauding countless
1:46unassuming investors with the help of
1:49his Harry Potter loving ancient Harem
1:51obsessed girlfriend what's insane is
1:54that up until a few months ago the FTX
1:56crypto exchange was lauded as one of the
1:59most respected entrusted parts of the
2:02crypto industry buying the name rights
2:04to the Miami Heat arena securing massive
2:07celebrity brand deals and even
2:09broadcasting a Super Bowl commercial
2:11starring Larry David like I was saying
2:14it's FTX it's a safe and easy way to get
2:16into crypto
2:17yeah I don't think so which all seems to
2:20lend Sam and his company more
2:22credibility a lot of otherwise very
2:24smart and successful people bought into
2:27the elaborate fraud Sam was peddling and
2:30unfortunately countless Innocence Lost a
2:32collective eight billion dollars in what
2:35one Court filing described as the
2:37biggest corporate failure in American
2:39history but the cautionary tale of Sam
2:43bankman freed is nothing new in a
2:45country where professional con artists
2:47accumulate massive net worth by
2:49intentionally misleading the general
2:51public one name in particular boasts a
2:54historic degree of disgrace Elizabeth
2:57Holmes Elizabeth Holmes Elizabeth Holmes
2:59wants a Silicon Valley Superstar
3:01Elizabeth Holmes will spend 11 years
3:03behind bars for defrauding investors in
3:062014 the healthcare technology giant
3:09theranos was valued at a whopping nine
3:11billion dollars eclipsing the valuations
3:14of both Uber and Spotify at the time
3:16with its young 20 something year old
3:18founder touted as a Pioneer in Silicon
3:21Valley theranos was once considered to
3:23be at the cusp of revolutionizing the
3:26blood testing industry a healthcare
3:28Pioneer is being compared to Visionaries
3:30like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs
3:32revolutionary Diagnostics company this
3:34is a very big deal
3:36if you think the story of a young
3:38Stanford Dropout overcoming All Odds to
3:41spearhead a contemporary medical
3:43Revolution is too good to be true that's
3:46because it is fairness was a lie one
3:50that ended with patients lives in
3:52Jeopardy and the company's own Founders
3:54Behind Bars join me in revisiting one of
3:57the most bizarre and truly mind-boggling
3:59medical swindles of all time as we
4:02uncover the true intent behind a false
4:05promise to save lives and the complex
4:07personalities that pushed theranos to
4:10the bleeding edge this is the story of
4:13Elizabeth Holmes every person should
4:15have the ability to get that type of
4:17test this is what happens first they
4:19think you're crazy then they fight you
4:21and then all of a sudden you change the
4:22world
4:25but before we get too deep here I want
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6:16I grew up spending Summers and the
6:20holidays with my uncle
6:24I remember his love of crossword puzzles
6:27and trying to teach us to play football
6:29I remember how much he loved the beach
6:34see a world in which
6:36no one ever has to say goodbye too soon
6:38Elizabeth Ann Holmes was born on
6:41February 3rd 1984 in Washington DC raced
6:45alongside her younger brother Christian
6:47Elizabeth always felt she had big shoes
6:49to fill given her family's vast history
6:52of accomplishments her great great
6:55grandfather for instance was such a
6:57masterful surgeon they named a hospital
6:59after him in Cincinnati he went on to
7:02marry the daughter of a man named
7:03Charles Lewis Fleischmann Hungarian
7:06immigrant accredited with founding the
7:08largest East Empire of the 1800s
7:11revolutionizing baking forever so yes
7:14Elizabeth Holmes's great great great
7:17grandfather is basically the reason
7:19bread can be mass produced and eaten
7:21today the more you know I guess While
7:24most of the yeast Fortune may have been
7:26spent on the extravagant lifestyles of
7:29her great grandfather and grandfather
7:31over the course of two generations
7:33enough was still left over for Elizabeth
7:36you enjoy a pretty comfortable
7:37upbringing her father Christian Holmes
7:40IV was a vice president that the once
7:43bustling Energy company in Ron and her
7:45mother Noel doused worked as a staffer
7:48on various congressional committees
7:50aiding U.S representatives on issues
7:52from defense to foreign policy her
7:55mother's familial history isn't without
7:57success either with Noel's father both
7:59planning and carrying out this shift
8:01from a draft-based military to an
8:04all-volunteer force in the U.S by the
8:061970s according to journalist John Kerry
8:09Roo Elizabeth's ancestry has even been
8:12traced back to the Marshall Lewis
8:14Nicholas devout a French military
8:16commander ranked among one of Napoleon's
8:19finest generals with such an array of
8:21accomplishments coursing throughout the
8:23family tree Elizabeth grew up with
8:26Monumental expectations when her family
8:28asked what she wanted to do when she
8:30grew up she'd responded I want to be a
8:33billionaire written off is the
8:34unrealistic imaginary nation of a child
8:37back then this was a goal that would be
8:39realized a few decades later Elizabeth
8:42telling the New Yorker in 2014 I grew up
8:45with these stories about greatness and
8:47people deciding not to spend their lives
8:49on something purposeful and what happens
8:52to them when they make that choice the
8:54impact on character and quality of life
8:57I've always believed that when people
9:00find
9:01what they're truly passionate about
9:04they can build
9:07great things various family members have
9:10since shined a light on Elizabeth's
9:12competitive side being known as a
9:14ruthless Monopoly player as a child and
9:17throwing fits when she lost to the
9:19extent that she apparently ran directly
9:21through a screen door more than once
9:24regardless Elizabeth's ambition drove
9:27her to design detailed inventions in her
9:29notebook which later translated to
9:31achieving huge success in school even
9:33when I'm in her sleep schedule and
9:35social life may suffer her inability to
9:38maintain a tight Social Circle as a
9:40child was only exacerbated by having to
9:43get up and move cross-country once her
9:45father's job was dissolved along with
9:47the entirety of Enron after an
9:49accounting fraud Scandal tore the
9:51company apart crazyo history repeats
9:54itself this led to her father working a
9:56myriad of jobs across various government
9:58agencies moving Elizabeth from DC to
10:01Houston Texas where she'd attend high
10:03school at St John's this is where she'd
10:05really sharpen her neck for business
10:07becoming interested in technology
10:09Elizabeth claimed in an interview with
10:11Fortune magazine that as a student she
10:14kicked off her first ever business by
10:16selling C plus plus compliers to
10:18universities in China eventually
10:21studying Mandarin and even getting the
10:23opportunity to attend Stanford's summer
10:25Mandarin program as a high school
10:27student which was pretty rare by the
10:29time graduation rolled around Elizabeth
10:31and her family had already established
10:34enough connections at Stanford that
10:35attempting the Ivy League school seemed
10:38like a no-brainer being accepted in 2002
10:41Elizabeth carried a goal of obtaining a
10:43degree in chemical engineering knowing
10:46she wanted to change the world finding
10:49her true calling just a few short
10:51semesters later and saws is becoming
10:55more aggressive the number of victims
10:57expected to Triple within weeks we are
10:59truly in the middle of the evolution of
11:01an epidemic in early 2003 the viral
11:04respiratory illness SARS was first
11:07identified in China before ripping
11:09across over two dozen countries in what
11:12would become a global Health epidemic
11:14that spanned the next year and a half it
11:16was here during the summer between her
11:18freshman and sophomore years at Stanford
11:21that Elizabeth Holmes worked at the
11:22genome Institute of Singapore during the
11:25fight against SARS by conducting
11:27traditional nasal swab testing by
11:30working with patients up close Elizabeth
11:32determined this wasn't always the most
11:34ideal method and immediately began
11:36dreaming up other ways to ensure the
11:39comfort and convenience of anyone in
11:41need of a test she began working on the
11:43concept for an alternative immediately
11:45upon her return to California where she
11:47sketched up the design for a small
11:49wearable arm patch that would both
11:51diagnose and treat various illnesses see
11:55being at Stanford exposed her to what's
11:57known as lab on its ship technology
11:59which is inc.com puts it enables diverse
12:02results to be extracted from a minuscule
12:04amount of liquid on a microchip now if
12:07you're like me and only have a fifth
12:09grade understanding of science and
12:10chemistry at best that's okay not all of
12:13this matters the important thing to know
12:15here is that Elizabeth's overarching
12:17goal throughout all of her work in the
12:19field relied on her desire to make tiny
12:22technology work on Tiny minuscule
12:24samples which apparently is incredibly
12:27hard to do Elizabeth's patch would
12:29ideally detect a virus in a patient and
12:32treat it with the appropriate antibiotic
12:34in doses that were adjusted according to
12:37variables in the patient's blood and to
12:39update doctors wirelessly something that
12:42was considered challenging but not
12:44impossible at least according to
12:46Stanford's then dean of engineering
12:48Channing Robertson who claimed it was
12:50not only bold but also remarkable in
12:52terms of its engineering and scientific
12:55Integrity see Robertson may have been
12:57sold but not everyone at Stanford was as
13:00optimistic about Elizabeth's new idea in
13:03fact when she approached professor of
13:04medicine Phyllis Gardner with her
13:06proposed Gardner fired back with a dose
13:09of reality bluntly stating that she
13:11didn't think her idea was going to work
13:13according to her a tiny patch that could
13:16diagnose and begin treating a patient's
13:18ailment defied the laws of physics and
13:21practically it wasn't anything other
13:22than a work of fiction but this didn't
13:25stop Elizabeth from filing a patent and
13:27hiring Stanford lab students to build
13:29the Prototype putting together this
13:31semblance of a small company with the
13:33help of Robertson Elizabeth soon
13:35realized she was spending more time
13:37pitching her brilliant idea to venture
13:40capitalists than actually the attending
13:43school but I wasn't going to any classes
13:46and I was spending all of my time
13:47talking to VCS and so then logistically
13:50it just seemed like a waste of money
13:51after just a year and a half of trying
13:54to juggle grades into getting a medical
13:56startup off the ground Elizabeth dropped
13:59out of Stanford in March of 2004
14:01breaking up with her boyfriend to focus
14:03more on work and putting what was left
14:05of her tuition money toward the dream of
14:08changing Diagnostics forever in other
14:11words at the beginning of the end for
14:13Elizabeth Holmes
14:15hurry down from
14:18here
14:23Elizabeth officially founded what would
14:26become theranos in 2003 at just 19 years
14:30old at the time it was called real-time
14:32cures which was written as real-time
14:34curses on the company's early paychecks
14:37thanks to an unfortunate typo really
14:39seemed Elizabeth was foreshadowing
14:41something there in the beginning the
14:42company operated out of the basement of
14:44a college house before upgrading to an
14:46office on the edge of East Palo Alto
14:49which Elizabeth discovered wasn't the
14:51best part of town after her car windows
14:53were apparently shot out showing up to
14:56work with glass shards still in her hair
14:58one day but these circumstances did
15:00little to deter her from taking the
15:02first step in making her idealistic
15:05technology a reality
15:08phrasing money as the case with every
15:11startup a good handful of willing
15:13investors was crucial for getting
15:15anything concrete's off the ground
15:17luckily Elizabeth prided herself on a
15:20dazzling pitch by painting a grandiose
15:22picture of what the world could look
15:24like with the help of her technology
15:26Elizabeth emphasized how her company had
15:29the potential to change the entire way
15:32we fight and diagnose diseases without
15:34delving too far into how the technology
15:37actually worked on a practical level her
15:40strategy was to talk up a big game and
15:42kind of hope the rest just fell into
15:44place along the way the details didn't
15:46matter especially not to the people she
15:49was trying to win over who weren't
15:51exactly the most knowledgeable on
15:52medical science
15:54[Music]
15:56her first wave of investors was
15:58described as more of a grab bag of
16:00random entrepreneurs who didn't want to
16:02miss out on what was being depicted as
16:05the next big thing for healthcare
16:07Elizabeth's technology was meant to be
16:09used by everyone after all ideally
16:11cutting out the need to be tested for
16:13illnesses in a lab altogether combine
16:15that utopian concept with the Charisma
16:18and charm that Elizabeth was said to
16:20have espoused and suddenly people wanted
16:22in specifically a family friend named
16:25Tim Draper who made a fortune from his
16:27early investments in unicorn companies
16:29like Hotmail Tesla and Skype did he know
16:32anything about the inner workings of
16:34Medical Laboratory Testing no but he
16:37along with many other Rich investors
16:39didn't want to risk fomo the fear of
16:42missing out can be a popular incentive
16:44to capitalize on these opportunities as
16:47early as possible it's what led him to
16:49cut Elizabeth a check for one million
16:51dollars on the spot and allowed theranos
16:54to raise six million dollars in venture
16:56backing by the end of 2004 a brand name
16:59Elizabeth derived from combining the
17:01words therapy and diagnosis of course
17:04not everyone bought her lackluster pitch
17:06especially not those in the medical
17:08field when one venture capitalist firm
17:11known for their Investments and you know
17:13Medical Technology it tried to pressing
17:16Elizabeth on the specifics of her device
17:18during a pitch the young CEO found
17:21herself unable to answer basic questions
17:24cutting the meeting short when she
17:25stormed out of the room if we were to
17:28use Elizabeth's own words the way her
17:30technology worked was that quote a
17:32chemistry is performed so that a
17:34chemical reaction occurs and generates a
17:37signal from the chemical interaction
17:38with the sample which is translated into
17:41a result which is then reviewed by
17:43certified laboratory Personnel if that
17:46doesn't sound like me trying to BS my
17:49way through a mandatory writing
17:50assignment my sophomore year of
17:52chemistry I don't know what it does the
17:54people who knew anything about what she
17:55was trying to do rarely fell for her
17:58charm whereas those with little to no
18:00prior knowledge of healthcare were the
18:02ones to jump on board one of Tim
18:04Draper's Associates telling inc.com you
18:07hear a lot about young entrepreneurs who
18:09come in with a certain confidence Holmes
18:11had 10 times that one drop of blood two
18:15drops of blood 50 tests 50 tests two
18:18drops of blood from your fingers yes
18:20and it worked beautifully well the
18:23investors remained content blinded by
18:25the hype of a new company they didn't
18:27know and a product they didn't
18:29understand theranosis chemists and
18:31Engineers lost more confidence by the
18:34day maybe the theropatch wasn't
18:36impossible but inventing a wearable
18:38device that could do everything
18:40Elizabeth wanted it to would pose
18:42significant logistical problems for the
18:45time being a theranos decided to focus
18:47on just the Diagnostics part but even
18:50that opened the door for challenges that
18:52weren't helped By Elizabeth's rigid
18:54expectations she ultimately wanted it to
18:57run dozens of tests at once which meant
19:00it needed to incorporate more equipment
19:02and thus needed to be bigger than
19:04something you could simply wear on your
19:06arm because of that the idea for a patch
19:08was sort of discarded and replaced with
19:11a new prototype dubbed the theranos 1.0
19:14an erratic boxy machine that relied
19:16heavily on microfluidics and
19:18biochemistry the theranos 1.0 used a
19:22cartridge and reader system that wasn't
19:24exactly in line with her original idea
19:27but still gave the company something to
19:29wheel out during demonstrations to allow
19:32more potential investors even if the
19:34device didn't actually work ever really
19:39[Music]
19:41theranos employees told us they were
19:44instructed to Stage fake demonstrations
19:46for investors in 2006 Elizabeth and her
19:50team made the trip out to Switzerland to
19:52present the theranos 1.0 in front of the
19:55global health care company in Novartis
19:57if all went well A fairness would secure
20:00a lucrative new Investments which they
20:02could really use now that they had blown
20:04through so much of their initial backing
20:06unfortunately though one of the two
20:08devices Elizabeth brought with them was
20:10malfunctioning the night before the demo
20:13while any normal person may have been
20:14honest about these flaws and works to
20:16fix them before presenting the machine
20:18to clients Elizabeth decided to go the
20:21insane route calling up her
20:22bioinformatics team back in Palo Alto
20:25and having them send all the test
20:27results before the presentation occurred
20:30so at the demo in Switzerland they would
20:32obtain a blood sample with a small
20:34finger prick and set the cartridge in
20:36the machine but as opposed to flashing
20:38its usual will error message the machine
20:41spit out the fake results from
20:42California giving Swiss investors the
20:45false impression that their blood was
20:47really being tested and the machines
20:49actually worked Elizabeth was so excited
20:51with the successful demonstration she
20:54emailed the entire company saying team
20:56we all nailed this one you all did an
20:58incredible job making this happen this
21:01is the theranos way but when the CFO
21:03found out about this he brought it up
21:05with Elizabeth at the next meeting
21:07saying we've been fooling investors you
21:10can't keep doing that to which Elizabeth
21:11responded you're not a team player I
21:14think you should leave right now he was
21:16fired on the spot the theranos way and
21:19then to convince investors that they
21:21really did have groundbreaking new
21:23technology they would stage these demos
21:25with not just investors but board
21:27members even media members they would
21:29prick the visiting vip's finger they
21:31would put the blood in the cartridge
21:33turn it on you know it start worrying
21:35and then they would say oh um it's going
21:38to take a little while one of them you
21:39come and either visit the lab or
21:42go look at what's over here go meet with
21:45Elizabeth in her office Elizabeth had
21:47proved she wasn't above faking
21:49demonstrations to win over the hearts
21:51and wallets of clients and frankly lying
21:54about the state of your product is
21:56hardly an uncommon occurrence in Silicon
21:58Valley the reality is plenty of tech
22:01entrepreneurs have managed to raise
22:02money for their companies by fudging the
22:04details a bit but theranos wasn't
22:07selling iPads this was being marketed as
22:09life-changing medical equipment if it
22:12ever became commercially available
22:13accurate blood testing is obviously
22:16crucial for doctors to know what's wrong
22:18with their patients and act accordingly
22:20filling a prescription based on a false
22:23positive or worse in not informing a
22:25patient to the serious ailment carries
22:27huge consequences for everyone involved
22:30and we've since seen the effects of it
22:32without getting too ahead of ourselves
22:34here one class action lawsuit filed by
22:37the people of Arizona a decade later
22:39included a woman who blamed the theranos
22:41test for saying she was miscarrying when
22:43she was still pregnant another patient
22:46received a false positive on their HIV
22:48test and another was wrongfully
22:50instructed to stop taking her blood
22:52thinning medication all as a result of
22:54theranos rushing to get what they knew
22:57were faulty products out on the market
22:59this wasn't something you could be
23:00flippant about yet Elizabeth was
23:03determined to go commercial as quickly
23:05as possible which included using real
23:07cancer patients as test subjects back in
23:102007 when Elizabeth orchestrated the
23:1315-month study for Pfizer that measured
23:16how 27 late-stage cancer patients
23:19responded to treatment as measured by
23:21theranos devices depending on the
23:24results theranos was looking at another
23:26lucrative partnership with one of the
23:28biggest names in medical manufacturing
23:31according to one retired Pfizer
23:33scientist the results displayed wild
23:35variations that theranos couldn't
23:37explain not even offer offering a
23:39response for two weeks Pfizer ultimately
23:42decided against a partnership with
23:44theranos after such a poor experience
23:46despite theranos calling every six
23:48months after that trying to get them to
23:50change their mind which I'm surprised
23:52didn't work Elizabeth has always had a
23:54persuasive charm managing to talk her
23:57way out of being removed as CEO in 2008
24:00by the board of directors a fate not
24:02even Elon Musk could withstand when he
24:05was oust from PayPal but by this point
24:07she had garnered a reputation for
24:09rushing her employees setting
24:11unrealistic expectations for their
24:13machines ignoring ethical obligations
24:15firing anyone who questioned her actions
24:18and of course lying to investors and
24:20patients about the reliability of their
24:22technology but that's not the only thing
24:24she was lying about now to the trial of
24:27EX theranos executive Sunny bawani
24:29prosecutor showed new text message
24:31exchanges between balwani and theranos
24:34founder Elizabeth Holmes Elizabeth hired
24:38a man named Johnny balwani in 2009
24:41despite having no prior experience in
24:44any scientific field Sunny quickly Rose
24:46to the top of the theranos pyramid it
24:49was promoted to president and CEO of the
24:53company what employees and the board
24:55didn't realize though is that sunny and
24:57Elizabeth were in a secret relationship
25:01thank you for inviting us here for the
25:03record my name is sunny balwani born in
25:061965 a Ramesh Sunny balwani began his
25:10career during the 90s at Microsoft where
25:12he claims to have written over a million
25:15lines of code which is virtually the
25:17impossible given the time frame in 1999
25:19he joined a company called
25:21commercevid.com and made 40 million
25:24dollars after it sold to Commerce one
25:26shortly before the.com Bubble Burst
25:28being in just the right place at the
25:31right time Sunny got lucky with tens of
25:34millions to his name he was pursuing his
25:36MBA at Berkeley at age 37 when he met
25:39Elizabeth Holmes an 18 year old senior
25:42in high school while it's uncertain when
25:45the two actually began dating they were
25:47confirmed to at least be living together
25:49by a 2005. joining the company four
25:52years later without any investors
25:54knowing about the true nature of their
25:56relationship which was cold and bizarre
25:59as evident by these screenshots of them
26:01to Florida I think you are the breeze in
26:04my desert for me my water and ocean
26:06meant only to be together tiger okay
26:10awesome as Elizabeth is second in
26:12command Sonny was described by employees
26:15as overbearing uncompromising and
26:18paranoid when he wasn't spying on
26:20people's conversations he was
26:21desperately encouraging employees to
26:24work long hours even if they weren't
26:26being productive the amount of time you
26:28spent at work was what made you a good
26:31loyal employee he also at once called
26:33the cops on a worker who refused to sign
26:35an NDA hysterically accusing him of
26:38stealing property in his mind in short
26:41Sunny was this unqualified rich guy who
26:44used his position in theranos to LARP as
26:46a dictator because come on it's not like
26:48this guy knew anything about chemistry
26:50or health care every day he'd pull up to
26:52work in his blacked out Lambo and
26:54proceed to misunderstand basic
26:56scientific terms in front of the entire
26:58team mistaking the term end effector for
27:01Indo factor a word that doesn't exist
27:04needless to say this guy wasn't the
27:06smartest meanwhile Elizabeth had
27:08commissioned a former Logitech employee
27:10Tony Nugent to improve the way blood
27:13samples were being handled in the lab
27:15with all of the constraints Elizabeth
27:16posed Nugent figured automation was the
27:19best way to go but since building a
27:21robot from scratch is hard he decided to
27:24just buy one a three thousand dollar
27:26mechanical arm with three degrees of
27:28motion that Nugent programmed to mimic
27:30the movements of a chemist in a lab
27:33working with only 50 microliters of
27:36blood this prized machine was later
27:38named The Edison being described as an
27:408th grade science project by those who
27:42had seen it in action one whistleblower
27:44later referring to it as a quote piece
27:47of crap consisting of six pipette tips
27:49that would constantly break off in the
27:51middle of tests get stuck in the gears
27:54causing the gears to jam up sometimes
27:56the tips wouldn't eject so they'd use
27:58coat hangers to free up the gears if
28:01they didn't just straight up user bare
28:03hands subjecting themselves to all kinds
28:05of pointy objects and toxic chemicals
28:07sure the Edison looked Sleek on the
28:10outside but with such a far cry away
28:12from Elizabeth's original Vision on the
28:15inside on the rare times it did work it
28:18only carried out immunoassay tests which
28:21only detect drug levels hormone levels
28:23and some cancer makers but their scope
28:26is limited this meant the Edison could
28:28not run the full range of tests
28:30Elizabeth had been telling investors
28:32it's like she cared more about The
28:34Branding than the actual mechanics that
28:36you know affect patients well-being
28:38theranos has struck a partnership with
28:40drugstore chain Walgreens to build
28:42thousands of wellness centers it wasn't
28:44until the Silicon Valley Boom at the
28:47beginning of 2010 the theranos
28:49officially reached out to Walgreens
28:51touting the productivity of the Edison
28:53via email and insisting they had the
28:56capability to run any blood test with no
28:58more than a few drops of blood fricked
29:01from the finger a pitch they knew was a
29:04lie but Walgreens didn't know that and
29:06became highly interested in doing away
29:08with their slower more expensive labs
29:11and arranged a meeting almost
29:13immediately it was with the help of an
29:15enthusiastic Walgreens team member Dr J
29:18that an agreement was reached theranos
29:20readers would be used in 30 to 90
29:23Walgreens stores no later than the
29:25middle of 2011. if it worked it could
29:28benefit everybody involved it would give
29:30patients the opportunity to receive
29:32blood tests in under an hour it gave
29:34theranos the chance to land another
29:36massive partnership and it would let
29:38Walgreens make a ton of money Walgreens
29:40was moving especially fast in this
29:42instance out of fear that theranos would
29:45soon be swept up by CVS if they didn't
29:47act now plus it helped that Dr J had the
29:50ear of the Walgreens CFO who excitedly
29:52hopped on board as well to further
29:55convince them theranos bragged to
29:56Walgreens about its commercially ready
29:58lab that could handle 192 blood tests on
30:02their own devices had anyone from
30:04Walgreens actually been given the chance
30:06to explore a said lab however they'd
30:08find that it was only an r d lab for
30:11research purposes and that half the
30:13tests they listed couldn't even be
30:14performed on The Edison but Elizabeth
30:16and other Top members of theranos
30:19repeatedly refused to let anyone from
30:21the Walgreens Camp actually see the lab
30:25Elizabeth had sooner gifted them an
30:27autographed flag than an actual look at
30:30their technology and when they finally
30:32did conduct a live test on the Edison by
30:35pricking the fingers of top Walgreens
30:36Executives and making a big show of it
30:39they never ended up sending the results
30:42it was around this time that a man named
30:44Kevin Hunter who had been sent by
30:46Walgreens to make sure theranos was on
30:47the up and up weren't in a report that
30:50the company quote might be overselling
30:52or overstating where they are at
30:55scientifically with the cartridges and
30:57devices but Walgreens still did not want
31:00to risk losing out on on such potential
31:02one executive telling Hunter we can't
31:05not pursue this we can't risk a scenario
31:07where CVS has a deal with them in six
31:09months and it ends up being real but
31:11they weren't the only ones with fomo the
31:13supermarket chain Safeway had also been
31:16eyeing theranos and ended up signing a
31:18deal in 2010 for a 30 million dollar
31:20loan and significant overhaul of Safeway
31:23stores which included adding brand new
31:25Labs where customers to get their blood
31:27tested in minutes by this point
31:30everything was falling into place
31:32theranos had secured two major
31:34Distributors raised more Capital funding
31:37and seemed to be on a great path to
31:39success if things weren't collapsing
31:41behind the scenes of course see theranos
31:44wanted to go live with a new product
31:45they called the mini lab which Elizabeth
31:48believed was quote the most important
31:51thing Humanity had ever built as the
31:54name suggests it was basically a bunch
31:56of already existing equipment shrunk
31:59down into a tiny little box to put
32:01bluntly the mini lab or 4S was a
32:04conceptual Nightmare and was still in
32:06the very early prototype stages by 2013.
32:10almost three whole years after theranos
32:13had originally planned to launch with
32:15Walgreens they had nothing to show but
32:17by that point Walgreens couldn't wait
32:19any longer the partnership was going to
32:22fall through if theranos didn't go live
32:24with something theranos needed access to
32:28patients and Walgreens made that happen
32:30by opening wellness centers inside its
32:33stores
32:34theranos received their first real blast
32:37of national recognition from The Wall
32:39Street Journal with a headline that
32:41praised Elizabeth for her breakthrough
32:43of instant diagnosis the 2013 article
32:46made therano sound to be the solution to
32:48painful slow and expensive blood testing
32:51serving as a resounding endorsement of
32:54Elizabeth other than its quite
32:56unflattering illustration I have to say
32:58the journal would not decide how the
33:00company's devices could quote automate
33:02and miniaturize more than a thousand
33:04laboratory tests from routine blood work
33:06to Advanced genetic analysis using a
33:10simple finger stick to draw a few
33:12droplets of blood from the capillaries
33:14at the end of your hand the blood would
33:16be placed into a vile Elizabeth dubbed
33:19the Nano Tanner which could hold a blood
33:21sample no bigger than the size of a
33:23raindrop you'd have your results almost
33:25instantaneously she promised just a few
33:28days after the article theranos set the
33:30mini lab aside to launch the Edison and
33:33select Walgreens stores along with their
33:35own website after a decade in stealth
33:38mode Elizabeth had finally publicized
33:41her life-saving technology that she
33:43insisted was a godsend for society and
33:46for about the next year and a half
33:48that's what everyone else thought too
33:51Elizabeth home is part of the news time
33:54100 list just out Elizabeth Holmes from
33:56theranos Elizabeth for example she has
33:59become wildly popular among those bucks
34:01who follow things like this appearing on
34:03the covers of Forbes Fortune tea and ink
34:06magazine in one illustrious cover story
34:09after another I guess these magazines
34:11just can't get enough of Rich frauds but
34:13at the time it was hard to deny how
34:15inspiring her journey was here was this
34:18female College Dropout who had worked 10
34:21years building one of the biggest
34:23companies in a male dominated industry
34:25wired called her achievements
34:27mind-blowing the New Yorker gave her a
34:29glowing profile and Time magazine named
34:32her among the top 100 most influential
34:35people in the world she was being
34:37compared to the likes of Bill Gates Mark
34:40Zuckerberg and especially her own
34:42personal role model Steve Jobs Elizabeth
34:45had idolized the Apple Foundry since the
34:47early days of her career and worked
34:49tirelessly to match his product activity
34:51and creative Outlook right down to her
34:54wardrobe sporting jobs as signature
34:57black turtleneck every day adopting a
34:59similar diet hiring security detail
35:02snatching up former Apple employees to
35:05work at theranos and even commissioning
35:07his advertising agency to make their
35:10commercials
35:11I've always followed a challenge and I
35:13think the reason I got into engineering
35:15was because I looked at it and I said
35:16that looks hard it's so empowering and
35:19Powerful to to be a part of a company
35:21created by a woman who is so incredibly
35:24intelligent and also nurturing next to
35:27every glass ceiling there's an iron lady
35:28she even referred to her technology as
35:32the iPod of healthcare everyone knew
35:34Elizabeth was obsessed with Steve Jobs
35:36in fact when his biography came out
35:38those at theranos who were also reading
35:41it could tell what part of the book she
35:43was at by the way she was talking and
35:45behaving that's how much she ripped this
35:47guy off maintaining a particular image
35:49became her top priority it's almost like
35:52she got so swept up in the hype of being
35:54a media darling that she forgot that her
35:56technology was a practical failure
35:58behind the scenes as far as the public
36:00was concerned theranos was the new Apple
36:03by this point their board of directors
36:05consisted of former Secretary of States
36:08Henry Kissinger future Secretary of
36:10Defense Jim Mattis Wells Fargo CEO
36:13Richard kovich [ __ ] man Richard kavoked
36:17hang on kavachovich kavachovich former
36:20Secretary of Defense William Perry
36:22former CDC director William foage and
36:25another former Secretary of State George
36:28Schultz who served under President
36:30Ronald Reagan during the Iran Contra and
36:33Cold War you know she's got the probably
36:34one of the most impressive Boards of any
36:36startup with Henry Kissinger and former
36:38Secretary of State George Schultz I
36:40talked to Henry Kissinger who said she
36:41is iron willed about getting this done
36:43such a powerful board of directors was
36:46practically unheard of and offered a new
36:48level of legitimacy to what theranos
36:50claims to be doing to top it all off
36:52Elizabeth managed to raise more than 700
36:55million dollars of capital funding
36:57thanks to the help of colossal investors
37:00including Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch
37:03oracle's Larry Ellison future Secretary
37:05of Education Betsy DeVos and the Walton
37:08family of Walmart inflating the value of
37:11theranos to nearly 10 billion dollars at
37:14its Zenith with Elizabeth owning half
37:16the company in 2015 this officially
37:19brought her personal net worth to an
37:22estimated 4.5 billion dollars the
37:25youngest billionaire in the world
37:28is that heady when you hear that
37:31you know it's it's not what matters
37:33um what matters is how well we do in
37:37trying to make people's lives better
37:38that's that's why I'm doing this that's
37:40why I work the way that I work and
37:42that's why I love what I'm doing so much
37:44at that point theranos had made it to
37:47the top of the mountain Elizabeth was
37:49doing TED Talks being invited to speak
37:51at various institutions and could barely
37:53walk down the street without being sworn
37:55by ravenous young fans who admired her
37:58more importantly she was also cozying up
38:00with the Obama Administration in a move
38:02that some wondered was a calculated ploy
38:05to avoid potential regulatory scrutiny
38:08down the line after all schmoozing the
38:10most powerful individuals in the country
38:12had seemed to work in shielding her for
38:14most doubters if she could ever become
38:16Pals with the president of the United
38:18States she may just be unstoppable so in
38:21July 2015 when then Vice President Joe
38:24Biden planned to visit theranos's
38:27California facility Elizabeth was
38:29determined to do everything she could to
38:31make a great impression which included
38:34staging an entire fake lab with fake
38:37equipment instead of taking Biden on a
38:39tour of their actual workplace Elizabeth
38:42and sunny cobbled together in erroneous
38:45display of defunct equipment that if
38:47anyone had tried using wouldn't actually
38:49do anything the entire event was nothing
38:52more than a pathetic theatrical display
38:54to impress the country and it worked the
38:58meeting ended with Biden making it
39:00apparent that he along with the entire
39:02Administration saw Elizabeth Holmes as a
39:06leading figure in the medicine World a
39:09much hyped Silicon Valley startup had a
39:11special visitor today we mentioned
39:12earlier in this newscast Vice President
39:14Joe Biden spending time at theranos it
39:17wants to shake up the health care
39:18industry it's made some progress so far
39:21and today got a big boost though if the
39:24people praising her actually knew what
39:26was going on behind closed doors they
39:29discovered that Elizabeth's Edison
39:31device could only test for about 15 of
39:34the 240 illnesses they advertised on
39:38their menu as it was later found out
39:39that theranos had been conducting the
39:41vast majority authority of its tests on
39:44other companies machines secretly buying
39:47commercial analyzers from Simon's in
39:49bulk as opposed to actually using the
39:51product they insisted would change the
39:54world the truth was the Edison was a
39:56piece of garbage pushing some employees
39:59to the point of quitting when they could
40:00no longer cope with the fact that these
40:02broken machines were being used on real
40:05life patients culminating with a
40:07concerned whistleblower at theranos
40:09reaching out to Federal Regulators
40:11rumors began to spread that the company
40:13was obscuring test results deleting
40:16outliers that would have caused the
40:17Edison to fail quality control checks
40:20which is not just unethical but highly
40:22illegal that whistleblower was Tyler
40:25Schultz the grandson of board member
40:27George Schultz who at that point had
40:29taken Elizabeth in as a close family
40:31friend in fact Tyler only applied at
40:34theranos when he ran into Elizabeth that
40:36his grandfather is home being hired to
40:38work in their protein engineering lab in
40:402013 what Tyler witnessed missed it
40:43theranos was far from the Utopia he had
40:45seen her spew to investors describing
40:48the blockades and locked doors that
40:51sprawled throughout its headquarters
40:53Tyler Maines tamed that many who worked
40:55at the company had never actually seen
40:58their own blood testing machines there
41:00was a list of words he wasn't allowed to
41:02say when describing his job to people
41:04and the morale was basically in the
41:06toilet probably because the amazing
41:08invention that had been hyped up to the
41:10entire world was just a pipette in a box
41:13which barely worked as it was when it
41:16often malfunctioned Tyler says he
41:18witnessed employees shoving their entire
41:20hands into the box even when highly
41:23dangerous chemicals like potassium
41:25cyanide were still inside I was told
41:28when I was working with it to be
41:29extremely careful because it was what
41:31Hitler used to kill himself then an
41:34engineer goes in and reaches in with his
41:36bare hands and you're just like no
41:38evidently theranos took lab safety about
41:41as seriously as it took quality control
41:43the company puts speed above anything
41:46else according to several key Witnesses
41:48including Erica Chung another major
41:51whistleblower who later testified
41:52against Elizabeth in court she argued
41:55the machines were never recalibrated
41:57because quote that would take days and
42:00with the lack of breaks employees were
42:02made to sleep in their cars while they
42:04waited Erica even kept a tally of all
42:07the times the tech failed quality
42:09control checks and when she'd put up
42:11error report sheets by the machines
42:13they'd just be taken down people didn't
42:15want to actually know the number of
42:17times that we were having issues because
42:19they were starting to realize we were
42:21having them so frequently she stated
42:23employees were heavily pressured into
42:25lying to doctors and Regulators out of
42:27fear of getting fired or sued by the
42:30company this cost such a massive problem
42:32that people were leaving in droves
42:34creating a high turnover rate that
42:37resulted in a lab director being
42:38replaced by a [ __ ] dermatologist at
42:41one point employee were a secretly
42:43forwarding emails from their theranos
42:45account to their personal ones so they
42:47could clear their name if the time ever
42:49came for a federal investigation that's
42:51how it's Shady all of this was Elizabeth
42:53and sunny were so freakishly paranoid
42:56about people going to authorities that
42:58they monitored all employee interactions
43:01by prohibiting various departments from
43:03speaking to each other as you can
43:05imagine hampering communication between
43:07the engineering team and chemistry lab
43:10made a working together to create a
43:12revolutionary medical device
43:14unreasonably difficult in court it was
43:16even revealed that two theranos lab
43:18directors both in charge of the same lab
43:21weren't even aware of each other's
43:23existence until the trial each
43:25department was required to go directly
43:27to the top when they had a question or
43:30concern Elizabeth made sure that she was
43:32the only one who knew what was happening
43:35in all departments and as she intended
43:37to keep it that way in the name of
43:39proprietary information and Trade
43:41Secrets which was really just code for
43:44her not wanting to listen to any
43:45potential concerns writing off worried
43:48employees is just vicious detractors if
43:50she didn't fire you on the spot she'd
43:53threatened to or at least see to it that
43:55you were ostracized from the rest of the
43:57company making sure you were rightfully
43:59punished for challenging the company's
44:01Vision long time theranos Chief
44:04scientist Ian Gibbons had indicated to
44:06his wife these problems from the very
44:08beginning as he had been with the
44:10company since 2005. being an
44:12accomplished inventor himself with over
44:1560 patents to his name Ian did not take
44:18his craft lightly and began to notice
44:20serious problems with the way the
44:22company was run as his wife later told
44:25CBS he started talking to me about all
44:27these Investments all the money that the
44:29company was bringing in and he told me
44:31that he couldn't imagine why people were
44:33giving the company any money because
44:35there was no invention there was nothing
44:37there adding Elizabeth lives about
44:40everything after racing these concern
44:42times with Elizabeth and board member
44:43Channing Robertson Ian was fired rehired
44:47and demoted all within a couple hours
44:49working at a lesser rank than before
44:52Ian's a passion for the company dwindled
44:55significantly over the next few years
44:57and it didn't help that he was also
44:59showing signs of depression in the
45:01meantime when he was eventually issued a
45:03court subpoena in an unrelated patent
45:05dispute against Elizabeth Ian became it
45:08terrified the testifying against his
45:10boss would breach the terms of his NDA
45:12and result in losing his job the day
45:15before he was set to testify Ian
45:17overdosed on Tylenol and died in the
45:20hospital a few days later when his wife
45:22Rachelle notified Elizabeth of Ian's
45:25passing she received no call back simply
45:28acknowledging the death of a top
45:30scientist who had been with the company
45:31from the very beginning was not on
45:33Elizabeth's agenda and instead Rachelle
45:36got nothing other than an office manager
45:38calling back and asking her to return
45:40Ian's company property work resumed like
45:43clockwork with Elizabeth pretending like
45:46nothing had happened to this day
45:48Rachelle is convinced her husband would
45:50still be alive had he not gone to work
45:53at theranos I think of it every day I
45:56mean
45:57I think of it all the time
45:59do you believe that if Ian
46:02had not gone to work for theranos that
46:04he would be oh yeah for sure no question
46:06many ex-employees can attest to the fact
46:09that Elizabeth and sunny created a
46:11culture of hostility at theranos but
46:14their intimidation tactics could only go
46:16so far doing little to deter Tyler
46:18Schultz from speaking with an
46:20investigative journalist by the name of
46:22John Kerry Roo a man who had spent
46:24nearly that entire year carefully
46:27crafting a series of articles for the
46:29Wall Street Journal exposing theranos
46:31for who they really were by interviewing
46:33countless employees and doctors Kerry
46:36Roo confirmed that the vast majority of
46:39tests were not being conducted on
46:41theranos equipment but instead other
46:43commercial testers due to how unreliable
46:46the Edison truly was in fact most
46:49theranos testing centers were using
46:51blood from the arm the exact method
46:54theranos set out to destroy the way
46:56their system worked included drawing
46:59blood the traditional way in the clinic
47:01then since using blood samples via FedEx
47:04truck to their California Lab where
47:06they'd be tested either by humans or
47:09Siemens analyzers but hardly any of it
47:12was being done on the Edison's
47:14themselves because he reached out to
47:16Elizabeth for comment before the story
47:19was released she knew it was coming and
47:21had already deployed her legal muscle
47:23David boyes who began strong arming
47:25whistleblowers David boys rocketed to
47:28National Fame by defending presidential
47:30candidate Al Gore in the 2000 election
47:32recount successfully arguing to overturn
47:35California's homophobic proposition a
47:37grilling Bill Gates in a suit against
47:39Microsoft and defending yeah boys has a
47:44pretty textured background to say the
47:46least and Elizabeth was paying him in
47:48Company stock which meant he also sat on
47:51the board of directors in a possible
47:52conflict of interest that she used to
47:55her Advantage he was more than
47:56financially obligated to see the
47:59survival of the company by any means
48:01necessary so he had no problem running
48:03up Hefty legal bills for whistleblowers
48:06which almost made Tyler's parents sell
48:08their house but that was of little
48:10concern to Elizabeth by the time October
48:132015 rolled around
48:16[Music]
48:17as soon as the first few articles
48:20dropped Elizabeth Holmes put herself
48:22directly in the line of fire instead of
48:25canceling an upcoming conference with
48:27the Wall Street Journal in Laguna Beach
48:29she used the event to hit back at her
48:31detractors and double down on her
48:33company's practices you've said that the
48:36journal's reporting has been erroneous
48:38and grounded in faceless assertions she
48:41expressed concern for the misinformation
48:44she claimed to have been spread by the
48:46journal and denied accusations that
48:48theranos was using commercially
48:50available equipment for its tests she
48:52asserted that their full commitment to
48:54transparency was evident by their
48:56willingness to voluntarily seek FDA
48:59approval but didn't acknowledge that
49:01theranos had been operating in sort of a
49:03gray Zone where because their tests were
49:06considered lab developed the FDA had
49:08little to no oversight as The Verge put
49:11it if a test is designed by and used in
49:14a single lab that lab is allowed to sell
49:17and advertise the test without the FDA
49:19sign off it's a dangerous loophole that
49:22still lingers to this day overall
49:25Elizabeth made it clear that she wasn't
49:27about to back down in the face of
49:29journalistic scrutiny maintaining her
49:31innocence even a safe way and Walgreens
49:33pulled back over the coming months
49:35Safeway unable to turn any kind of
49:38profit at all after already sinking 350
49:41million dollars into building on-site
49:43theranos clinics and their stores
49:45dissolved their partnership before they
49:47could even get their hands on any
49:49devices Walgreens announced it would no
49:51longer be sending tests to theranos's
49:53California lab and suspended all
49:56theranos services at its Palo Alto
49:58location following a letter from CMS
50:01stating theranos's lab had failed to
50:03comply with Federal standards to an
50:06extent that put patients lives in
50:08immediate Jeopardy giving theranos 10
50:10days to fix things or else Elizabeth and
50:13sunny would risk being banned from
50:15running laboratory as a result Sunny
50:18exited the company in May 2016. some
50:21speculate this was around the time he
50:23and Elizabeth broke up but the details
50:25around their personal lives will always
50:26be a bit fuzzy what we do know is that
50:29same month theranos decided to void two
50:32years worth of blood tests in what the
50:34journal estimated corrected tens of
50:36thousands of blood reports with new
50:39leaks and information being published
50:41every other week things were coming
50:43apart fast as far as their value went
50:45farados was in a free fall and it didn't
50:48look like shake-ups to the board were
50:50helping much either by that summer
50:52Walgreens closed their 40 theranos
50:54locations as Forbes heavily reduced the
50:57company's valuation bringing Elizabeth's
50:59personal net worth down from 4.5 billion
51:03to zero just as it seemed Elizabeth had
51:05lost it all CMS officially revoked her
51:09license in July 2016. Elizabeth could
51:12not run a lab for two years the company
51:15became the epitome of a car crash she
51:17just couldn't look away from but
51:19Elizabeth was convinced she could still
51:21turn things around in spite of such
51:24public degradation
51:27in an attempt to bypass CMS stipulations
51:30Elizabeth abandoned the idea of using
51:33Labs or clinics at all revealing in
51:36August 2016 the mini lab meant to
51:39replace the now condemned Edison
51:40Elizabeth insisted the new and improved
51:434S could handle a range of more varied
51:46tests including zika which was pretty
51:49widespread at that time Elizabeth
51:50presented it as the last Hail Mary to
51:53save the company from sure failure
51:55claiming it would one day be able to
51:57test tiny drops of blood for viral and
52:00bacterial infections analyze blood
52:03chemistry probe for problems in the
52:05immune system and assess crucial blood
52:07components that could ideally save
52:09Millions this technology that we
52:12introduced today is the latest version
52:14of our mini lab technology and what we
52:16wanted to do was introduce the invention
52:18and the capability to run a broad range
52:21of assay methods on a single platform
52:24but nobody was having it theranos was
52:26slammed with law lawsuit after lawsuit
52:28their biggest investor partner fund
52:30management accusing theranos of Security
52:32fraud seeking 96 million dollars in
52:36Damages the company was forced to lay
52:38off hundreds of employees as Walgreens
52:40sued them for 140 million the amount
52:43they had initially sunk into theranos
52:45years prior while they settled for way
52:47less than that a year later the company
52:49was on its last legs by 2017. laying off
52:53almost half of the remaining staff
52:56before failing a second regulatory lab
52:59inspection in September forcing them to
53:01shut down their last remaining
53:03laboratory right then and there after
53:05being exposed by the media pummeled by
53:08lawsuits and slammed by Regulators
53:10theranos had no choice but to dissolve
53:13in 2018 but not before Elizabeth and
53:16sunny face the music themselves I'm
53:19gonna follow my counsel's instructions
53:21I'm going to follow my counsel's
53:22instructions following his instructions
53:27[Music]
53:30Shadows walking by you
53:35on March 14 2018 the former couple were
53:39each personally charged with a massive
53:42fraud by the SEC who claimed the two
53:44raised money under faulty circumstances
53:46or in their words through an elaborate
53:48years-long fraud in which they
53:50exaggerated or made false statements
53:53about the company's technology business
53:55and financial performance the complaint
53:58also alleged Elizabeth and sunny both
54:00knew that the Edison could only carry
54:02out 12 of the 200 tested advertised on
54:06its patent testing menu which up until
54:08this point was only hearsay finally an
54:11official government institution was
54:13looking at theranos through a more
54:15appropriate critical lens as the SEC
54:18went on to further insist the company
54:20lied about its Revenue projections
54:22claimed regulatory approval for their
54:25devices was voluntary when it wasn't and
54:28they had in fact been using slightly
54:30modified third-party Machinery without
54:33the public knowing the SECU some of
54:36Elizabeth's own public statements
54:37against her too citing multiple
54:39instances where she lied to make the
54:41company seem more legit to the media she
54:43would then use that positive attention
54:45to get more money from investors not to
54:47mention how she'd illegally slap the
54:49Pfizer and John Hopkins logos on fake
54:52lab reports to make themselves out to be
54:54some serious health care entity
54:56everything was conducted under a false
54:58pretense that the technology was far
55:00more advanced than what the chemists
55:02engineers and technicians on the inside
55:04kept telling Elizabeth the evidence
55:07proves she was warned time and time
55:09again about the status of their
55:11technology but her willful ignorance got
55:14the best of her as she continued to
55:16deceive everyone on the outside
55:17Elizabeth had even doubted her
55:19relationship with Jim Mattis to make it
55:21seem Thera knows how to track record of
55:24working with the Department of Defense
55:25while it's true Elizabeth had hoped to
55:28eventually use Edison devices to test on
55:31soldiers overseas this never would have
55:33happened given the FDA guideline times
55:35they needed to have met together the
55:37charges involved over 700 million
55:40dollars and in June 2018 Elizabeth and
55:43sunny were both indicted on criminal
55:45wire fraud charges over engaging in a
55:48multi-million dollar scheme to defraud
55:50investors patients and doctors delayed
55:53by covid and more than one possible
55:56strategic pregnancy Elizabeth's trial
55:58found her guilty on four of the 11
56:00federal charges what's interesting is
56:03that she was actually found not guilty
56:04on four other charges related to
56:06defrauding patients but regardless in
56:09November 2022 Elizabeth was sentenced to
56:1311 years and three months in federal
56:15prison with sunny getting almost an
56:17identical sentence in December ensuring
56:19the two will live out the next decade of
56:22their lives behind bars for swindling
56:24hundreds of millions of dollars from
56:26unsuspecting investors and putting the
56:29lives of countless Innocents in Jeopardy
56:31all in the name of careless arrogance
56:33and false Innovation every person should
56:36have the ability to get that type of
56:37test because if you understand that
56:40early that you're at risk there's a lot
56:43more that you can do about it and we'd
56:45like to see a world in which every
56:47person
56:48gets access to this type of basic
56:51testing and the types of tests that are
56:53done or ones that provide insight into
56:56the onset of disease in time to do
56:59something about it we may never know
57:01whether or not Elizabeth truly believed
57:03in theranos's Mission while her initial
57:06goal after dropping out of college may
57:08not have been to endanger patients and
57:10to bark on a decades-long fraud to
57:12Swindle the country's richest people out
57:14of hundreds of millions of dollars it's
57:16just kind of what happened if you ask me
57:18the tragedy of Elizabeth Holmes is a
57:20combination of unrealistic ambition and
57:23unrelenting ego Elizabeth took fake it
57:26till you make it to a whole new level
57:28and ended up Landing herself in jail
57:30when her technology failed to live up to
57:32her incredibly lofty Vision at the
57:35beginning she figured she could just
57:36make certain promises and to iron out
57:38the details later on but before she knew
57:40it all those little white lies began to
57:43pile up into a massive fraud her goal
57:46may have been to revolutionize an
57:48industry and become a cultural Pioneer
57:50in the meantime but the problem is she
57:52put more effort into the latter than
57:54perfecting what would have actually
57:55gotten her there inside her
57:57paranoia-ridden mind she had all the
58:00answers and anyone who said differently
58:02was only trying to deter her from
58:04whatever pipe dream she had conjured up
58:06she'd rather fix on the trivial nature
58:08of theranos's branding then wastes time
58:10on the boring difficult and confusing
58:13details of what would actually breathe
58:15life into her idea but as we've seen you
58:18can't afford to do that when the
58:20well-being of patience is at the heart
58:22of your idea why so many people continue
58:24to have faith in her vision I think
58:27comes down to human nature with the way
58:29our brains work it's often we see
58:31someone speaking with enough Charisma
58:33and conviction that we just kind of
58:35assume whatever they're saying is legit
58:37plus it's not like anyone wanted it to
58:39be false people unfortunately lose loved
58:41ones to infectious diseases and Cancers
58:44all the time and the prospect that maybe
58:46we don't have to say goodbye too soon is
58:49a powerful one maybe it's some form of
58:51what Elizabeth envisioned can still
58:53happen one day but I just don't think
58:55we're there the plan was always too
58:58ambitious from the start but Elizabeth
59:00would rather stop at nothing to pursue
59:03an idealistic reality where she wins
59:05then listen to the more Xperia against
59:07grounded voices around her proving the
59:10story of Elizabeth Holmes to be one of
59:13extraordinary aspiration followed by
59:15crushing defeat in the form of a
59:17devastating reality check and bounce
59:20houses
59:24[Music]
59:33keep on keep running
59:37[Music]
59:41foreign

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