Elizabeth Holmes jurors hear different takes on her downfall

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Jurors successful the lawsuit of erstwhile Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes connected Thursday heard starkly antithetic interpretations of her motives and actions arsenic her long-running transgression proceedings nears the decorativeness line.

A national authoritative formed Holmes arsenic a hopeless con creator who brazenly lied to get rich, portion her lawyer depicted her arsenic a well-meaning entrepreneur who ne'er stopped trying to cleanable Theranos’ blood-testing exertion and present connected her pledge to amended wellness care.

The closing arguments are the last enactment successful a three-month-old proceedings revolving astir allegations that Holmes duped investors, concern partners and patients into believing that Theranos had invented a much humane, quicker and cheaper mode to trial blood. The lawsuit could beryllium handed implicit to the assemblage Friday.

Prosecutor Jeff Schenk opened his closing statement by coating a sordid representation of Holmes, erstwhile a Silicon Valley billionaire — connected insubstantial — present trying to debar condemnation connected fraud charges that could effect successful a 20-year situation sentence.

As helium methodically walked the assemblage done the grounds of the 29 witnesses called by the government, Schenk emphasized that Holmes had a captious prime to marque connected respective occasions during her 15-year reign moving Theranos. Holmes could person acknowledged troubling flaws successful Theranos’ blood-testing technology, Schenk contended, but she covered them up alternatively arsenic portion of her pursuit of fame and fortune.

“She chose fraud implicit concern failure,” Schenk told the assemblage astatine the outset of a three-hour presentation. “She chose to beryllium dishonest. This prime was not lone callous; it was criminal.”

Holmes’ lawyer, Kevin Downey, rapidly countered that assertion erstwhile helium got his crook to sway the jury.

“Elizabeth Holmes was gathering a concern and not a transgression enterprise,” Downey said earlier trying to person the assemblage that the national authorities had presented a distorted snapshot of her dealings astatine Theranos.

Instead of relying connected needles to gully vials of humor from a vein, Holmes spent years promising Theranos would beryllium capable to scan for hundreds of diseases and different wellness problems with conscionable a fewer drops of humor taken with a digit prick.

It was specified a compelling conception that Theranos raised much than $900 million, struck partnerships with large retailers Walgreens and Safeway and turned Elizabeth Holmes into the taxable of screen stories connected concern magazines.

But chartless to astir radical extracurricular Theranos, the company’s blood-testing exertion was flawed, often producing inaccurate results that could person endangered the lives of patients who took the tests astatine Walgreens stores.

After the flaws were exposed successful 2015 and 2016, Theranos yet collapsed and the Justice Department filed a transgression lawsuit successful 2018 that charged Holmes with 11 felony counts of fraud and conspiracy.

While Schenk made the lawsuit for conviction, Holmes peered astatine some the authoritative and the jurors from crossed a packed courtroom successful San Jose, California. Just a fewer feet down her, Holmes’ parent and existent partner, Billy Evans, sat successful the beforehand enactment listening intently, arsenic did Holmes’ father, who hadn’t antecedently attended the proceedings successful the beingness of the jury.

Schenk occasionally played recordings of abstracted conversations Holmes had with a radical of Theranos investors successful December 2013 and with a Fortune mag newsman successful May 2014. In some recordings, Holmes makes a bid of inaccurate and exaggerated comments astir the capabilities of Theranos’ exertion and purported contracts with the U.S. subject that ne'er materialized.

In different grounds displayed by Schenk, Holmes distorted the scope and prospects of partnerships that Theranos had allegedly struck with Walgreens and large cause makers specified arsenic Pfizer.

“You should find her guilty, but you shouldn’t find her blameworthy due to the fact that of my words,” Schenk said. “You should find her blameworthy due to the fact that of her words.”

In his presentation, Downey urged jurors to cautiously pore done grounds that includes much than 900 exhibits to get a fuller representation and knowing of what she was trying to do. He pointed to contracts that Theranos had with respective pharmaceutical companies that the authorities didn’t notation during its lawsuit arsenic a illustration of the half-baked communicative that helium said prosecutors presented.

The prosecution focused astatine a bid of events astatine Theranos that “look bad, but astatine the extremity of the time erstwhile each the grounds flows together, isn’t that bad,” Downey said.

Downey besides emphasized to the assemblage needed to beryllium convinced “beyond a tenable step” to state Holmes blameworthy connected immoderate count. To exemplify the trouble of that challenge, helium displayed a graphic showing the 7 steps that had to beryllium scaled earlier reaching that threshold.

The verdict could hinge connected however the assemblage reacts to 7 days of grounds from Holmes successful her ain defense. During a peculiarly pivotal 2 hours connected the stand, Holmes told the tribunal she was raped portion she was a freshman astatine Stanford University earlier dropping retired successful 2003 to recovered Theranos erstwhile she was 19.

Around the aforesaid time, Holmes testified, she became progressive successful a lengthy romance with a palmy exertion executive, Sunny Balwani, who yet became Theranos’ main operating serviceman portion the mates were secretly surviving together. During that time, Holmes said, Balwani controlled everything from her fare to her friendships portion subjecting her to mental, affectional and intersexual maltreatment that she implied affected her judgement arsenic Theranos’ CEO.

Balwani’s lawyer has adamantly denied Holmes’ allegations, but the assemblage successful her proceedings ne'er heard from Balwani, who intended to invoke his Fifth Amendment close against self-incrimination had helium been been called to testify. He faces a abstracted proceedings connected akin fraud charges successful February.

Schenk urged the assemblage to disregard Holmes’ maltreatment revelations arsenic an irrelevant effort to garner sympathy.

“If you instrumentality a blameworthy verdict, you are not saying you don’t judge her maltreatment allegations,” Schenk said.

The closing arguments are expected to wrapper up Friday, mounting signifier for assemblage deliberations to yet begin.