Theranos Leaders Indicted For Fraud

Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges that allege the company’s promise to revolutionize blood testing swindled investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars and put patients in danger.

Written byAshley Yeager

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ISTOCK, JASONDOLYElizabeth Holmes, founder and former CEO of the blood-testing company Theranos, and Ramesh Balwani, former president, have been indicted on charges of alleged fraud, The New York Times reported last Friday (June 15).

A grand jury filed criminal charges against Holmes and Balwani on two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud in the indictment. The pair is accused of conning investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars, deceiving doctors and patients, and putting patients in personal danger. Holmes and Balwani could each spend up to 20 years in prison and be forced to pay $2.7 million in fines, according to STAT News.

Lawyers for Holmes did not respond to request for comment from The Times, but Balwani’s lawyer said in a statement that his client was “innocent and looks forward to clearing his name at trial.”

Theranos’s technology promised to use only a finger prick of blood to test for ...

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Meet the Author

Ashley Yeager
Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.
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