Why Elizabeth Holmes Was Convicted (and Also Acquitted)

Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos was convicted on some charges but no others. Why?

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[scifisyko]

It’s wild that the person known for being adept at manipulation absolutely did the exact same thing to the jurors and it totally worked.

[StrongMed]

Here is the truly crazy thing about the Theranos scandal. Holmes was from Stanford, and the Theranos headquarters is a mile from campus. Yet there is not one physician or scientist here who believed her technology was legit. How investors got played for millions without even talking to an independent scientist, when there were 1000s of local scientists to choose from within spitting distance from Theranos is beyond me. It's hard to feel too much sympathy for someone so wealthy who is that reckless with their wealth.

EDIT: Another comment here mentioned Ian Gibbons as a counterexample. (YouTube is not letting me directly reply the comment) Gibbons was not affiliated with Stanford, and as he worked for Theranos, he was hardly in a position to give investors an independent opinion on the technology.

[jonahfalcon]

Juror #6: "She seemed so nice, so I couldn't convict."

Juror #6, that's what a con artist does. That's why "con" is short for CONFIDENCE.

[Thelacker]

"She genuinely believed she was helping people."

No she didn't. She might genuinely believe she COULD EVENTUALLY help people, but if you knowingly lie about WHETHER OR NOT YOU USED YOUR OWN TESTS you probably don't genuinely believe your tests CURRENTLY help anyone.

[partlycloudy]

As someone who works in a lab, this whole case annoys me to no end. They asked doctors and investors, not pathologists and laboratory staff. Her claims of being able to perform a large battery of tests on a few drops of blood are a pipedream. She annoys the ever loving hell out of me.

[johnalbert]

The takeaway: you can get away with fraud if you're a good enough con-man to convince a jury that you really believed you weren't doing anything wrong.

Seems like a pretty big loophole to me.

[danb]

So she changed her entire personality to manipulate investors, going so far as to change her mannerisms voice and looks. Then on the trial she suddenly transforms into this likeable person that all the jurors genuinely "believe in"

Sorry but sounds like she just manipulated them as well. And they fell for it.

[markdavis]

Elizabeth Holmes is punished for making fools of rich investors but is acquitted for causing real harm to patients.

[unahaller]

fun fact: my mom used to work for her dad in the government. he talked about his “successful” daughter A LOT and pushed the sort of hubris that got her into trouble. yikes!

[KeeliaSilvis]

I'm a former neuroscience lab tech, and I can confirm that EVERYONE in lab science knew this was nonsense from the beginning. But of course no one listened to the actual technicians until far too late during this saga. 🙄

[SS-xrjf]

Her getting off on defrauding the patients was absolute malarkey. They sold physicians on a product that, even if she genuinely believed would work eventually, she knew it did not work yet. And knew that the end user would be the patients.

[aprylvanryn]

Fun fact, that's Holmes's stage voice. She intentionally tried to sound more masculine so her investors would trust her more.

[Felix-nzlq]

Theranos' disaster speaks less of the persuasiveness of Elizabeth Holmes, but more about the absurdity that is Wall Street Investing. Everything is about fancy marketing words, be it blood-testing, nfts or the metaverse. A group of ultra-wealthy individuals who are so stuck in their little bubble they fail to apply the most basic rigour to anything they do.

[bobbyt]

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that the jury heard that her product was essentially as accurate as a coin flip and yet they still believed she was genuine based on her testimony. That is incredible. Imagine how effective she could have been if she wasn't a fraud.

[ak]

I'm an experienced lawyer. I watch lawyers on YouTube. You are, hands down, the best. You do a remarkable job.

[steveherman]

I was directly affected by Theranos so this is interesting to me. My doctor suggested I use Theranos for a blood test because money was tight and my high deductible insurance meant I had to pay most of my health costs out of pocket. I got the test. It seemed impressive with the phone app they had. I was excited. Except the test was completely wrong and I had made health decisions based on the bogus test I received. I kind of wish I could sue Theranos and I suppose I could have tried, but mostly because I was angry that I was duped. I feel like if you get duped by a store selling you something that doesn't work it's different when you are purchasing something that is part of the public trust like health care.

[interloper]

Maybe next time a 19 year old with 1 year of undergrad chemistry claims to have invented the 'most disruptive device in the history of medicine' which defies the laws of physics, people will ask more questions before investing...

[AHeroAlmost]

Someone can still be “likeable” and guilty …

She really made a fool of the jurors involved …

[Grinnar]

Always enjoy these breakdowns, so us normal folk can understand.

[Keyser___Soze]

This is whats so frustrating about having it all come down to 12 of your peers. Like how Juror 6 said “well she was so likable and had such a positive dream”. YOU ARE NOT THERE TO JUDGE IF SHES LIKABLE! IT DOES NOT MATTER IF YOU THINK SHE HAD A POSITIVE F*CKING DREAM! Its like 90% jurors never actually make a decision strictly on the evidence and if it was a crime, they all just make their decision on if they’re likable or not. The fact that juror even said that and doesn’t see anything wrong with that is mind blowing 🤯

Its scary knowing your life can be in the hands of 12 of your “peers” or the life of someone who hurt you or someone you love because Ill go back to one of my favorite George Carlin quotes... “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that”