Elizabeth Holmes

Elizabeth Anne Holmes (born February 3, 1984) is an American businesswoman who founded and was the CEO of Theranos, a now-defunct health technology company. Holmes founded Theranos in 2003, however by 2015 it began unravelling as journalists claimed she was deceiving investors. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2018 charged Theranos, Holmes, and former Theranos Chief Operating Officer (COO) Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani with raising $700 million from investors through a fraud involving false or exaggerated claims about the accuracy of the company's blood-testing technology. Holmes settled the charges by paying a $500,000 no admit no deny (NAND) fine, returning 18.9 million shares to the company, relinquishing her voting control of Theranos, and accepting a ten-year ban from serving as an officer or director of a public company. A federal grand jury indicted Holmes and Balwani on fraud charges in June 2018. Her trial in the case of U.S. v. Holmes, et al. ended in January 2022 when Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors and acquitted of defrauding patients. She was sentenced to serve 11.25 years at Federal Prison Camp, Bryan, beginning on May 30, 2023. She and Balwani were ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to the victims of the fraud.