MassDevice

The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice

Home » Elizabeth Holmes’ need for cash, clothes, travel just like other CEOs, attorneys say

Elizabeth Holmes’ need for cash, clothes, travel just like other CEOs, attorneys say

By

Elizabeth Holmes Theranos
Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes leaves after a hearing at a federal court in San Jose, Calif., on July 17, 2019. [Image courtesy of Reuters/Stephen Lam]
Ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes has set out to prove that the lure of wealth and fame did not lead her to commit fraud with her now-defunct blood-testing company.

Attorneys for Holmes filed dozens of briefs this week seeking to refute prosecutors’ claims that Holmes’ desire for recognition and wealth allegedly motivated her to lie about the capabilities of Theranos’ technology to detect disease through one drop of blood.

In a motion filed Jan. 8, prosecutors said that Holmes having allegedly “gained a variety of tangible and intangible benefits from the fraud tends to show that she intended to defraud in order to obtain those benefits. Similarly, Defendant’s desire to retain her wealth and status created a powerful motive for defendant to continue and conceal her fraud.”

Holmes’ lawyers have now fired back, claiming federal prosecutors are trying to “inflame the jury improperly by suggesting that irrelevant evidence concerning Ms. Holmes’ income, wardrobe, and travel itineraries gave her a motive to commit a federal crime.” The government’s arguments are irrelevant and risk “invoking class prejudice,” they added.

Holmes’ defense team also claims prosecutors are trying to prey on jurors’ gender biases by focusing on Holmes’ “purchase of expensive clothing, makeup and self-care products” and her travel budget, which they said Holmes needed for work just like other CEOs.

Theranos’ stock soared as a result of Holmes’ exaggeration of the company’s achievements, with a valuation in the billions at one point, according to prosecutors. The business community both in California and across the country came to admire Holmes, who enjoyed numerous profiles in publications and TV appearances. Holmes closely monitored daily news to cultivate her image. Forbes in 2015 even recognized Holmes as America’s richest self-made woman based on Theranos’ multibillion-dollar valuation at the time.

Investigative reporting, though, soon dismantled the claims Holmes was making about Theranos’ technology, raising questions about whether she and others had misled investors. The downward spiral culminated in the 2018 shutdown of the company, with the SEC criminally charging Holmes and former Theranos president Sunny Balwani over what it described as a “massive fraud.”

Balwani’s trial is expected to follow the Holmes trial, which is slated to start in July.

 

In case you missed it

RSS From Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Boston Scientific whistleblower launches corruption investigation
    Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) is investigating claims that the company violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in Vietnam. Marlborough, Massachusetts–based Boston Scientific disclosed receipt of a whistleblower’s allegations in its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “In March 2022, the company received a whistleblower letter alleging Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations in Vietnam.… […]
  • 5 essential leadership lessons from Cathy Burzik for medtech’s next generation of women leaders
    Cathy Burzik, a seasoned senior executive in the healthcare industry, has successfully led major medical device, diagnostic, diagnostic imaging and life sciences businesses. Cathy Burzik, CFB Interests (as told to MedExecWomen co-founder Maria Shepherd) One key to being a successful women leader in MedTech: “Play nice, but play to win.” Cathy Burzik, who received a… […]
  • Stratasys plans to buy Covestro’s additive manufacturing business
    Stratasys (Nasdaq:SSYS) said today that it has a deal to purchase the additive manufacturing materials business of Covestro. The deal includes R&D facilities and activities, global development and sales teams across Europe, the U.S. and China, a portfolio of approximately 60 additive manufacturing materials, and hundreds of patents and patents pending, Stratasys said in a… […]
  • New implant design prevents scar tissue without drugs, MIT says
    Mechanically inflating and deflating an implantable device for 10 minutes a day prevents immune cells from building the scar tissue that has been a major obstacle for artificial pancreas researchers. That’s according to new findings from a team of MIT engineers who built mechanical deflection into a two-chambered, soft polyurethane device tested on mice. By… […]
  • Blue Spark’s TempTraq catches fevers faster. Fever prediction is next.
    Blue Spark Technologies developed the first wireless continuous temperature monitor patch, TempTraq, to enable faster fever detection than standard manual readings every four hours. Westlake, Ohio-based Blue Spark is now looking at fever prediction rather than just detecting them. The R&D team is working on developing an AI neural network model built on the company’s… […]
  • Harvard researchers plan to sell at-home, PCR-grade COVID testing system
    The Harvard University researchers who developed an ultrasensitive, PCR-grade nucleic acid detection technology plan to commercialize it as a portable COVID-19 test. Harvard Medical School professor Peng Yin, who also leads the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering’s Molecular Robotics Initiative, founded 3EO Health to sell the device. “In order to optimize the value of… […]
  • FDA reports sterilization challenge progress as EPA takes aim at EtO emissions
    The FDA offered an update on its efforts to make medical device sterilization safer as the EPA identified 23 U.S. facilities where use of ethylene oxide (EtO) presents a risk to communities. The FDA said it is similarly concerned about unsafe EtO emissions and highlighted work with the medical device industry to reduce EtO usage… […]
  • AdvaMed defends EtO facilities on EPA’s cancer risk list
    The Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) today reacted to the EPA’s listing of commercial sterilization facilities causing elevated risks of cancer with a defense of the facilities and a call for more research. AdvaMed CEO and President Scott Whitaker said all of the listed facilities are in compliance with regulations and warned against closures. “The… […]
  • EPA flags high-cancer-risk EtO sterilization facilities across the country
    The EPA today identified nearly two dozen U.S. cities where commercial sterilizers using ethylene oxide (EtO) contribute to an elevated cancer risk for residents of surrounding communities. EtO is used on about 20 billion medical devices each year — or about half of all sterile medical devices —  and in some cases it’s the only… […]
  • New method of cardiac ablation used in first in-human trial for ventricular tachycardia
    A new cardiac ablation technique for patients with ventricular tachycardia (VT) has been used in its first in-human multicenter trial involving Mayo Clinic. The new process — needle ablation using in-catheter, heated, saline-enhanced, radio frequency (SERF) energy — creates lesion scars inside the heart muscle where life-threatening arrhythmias cause VT, Mayo Clinic said. Injecting heated saline… […]
  • AdvaMed pushes CMS for proposed TCET pathway rule this year
    The Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) is asking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to move fast on a new way to guarantee reimbursement for new medtech innovations. CMS repealed the Medicare Coverage of Innovative Technology (MCIT) program last year but promised to explore other options to improve the coverage process for access… […]