Elizabeth Holmes & The Theranos Deception | 60 Minutes Archive

Elizabeth Holmes has been found guilty on four counts of wire fraud. In 2018, Norah O’Donnell reported on Theranos, the company led by Holmes with a blood-testing machine that could never perform as touted that went from a billion-dollar baby to a complete bust.

"60 Minutes" is the most successful television broadcast in history. Offering hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles of people in the news, the broadcast began in 1968 and is still a hit, over 50 seasons later, regularly making Nielsen's Top 10.

[MariaHelena-cgqj]

Fun fact: Elizabeth Holmes's father is Christian Rasmus Holmes IV, former vice president of Enron. Enron was once a billion-dollar company but is now bankrupt due to a fraud scandal. Isn't it nice how Elizabeth kept the family tradition going?

[potocatepetl]

For God's sake, she was 19 years old and droped out of university. Where from and when did her investors think she got all the knowledge she needed for her lab/device??? People are insane.

[EtherealAriel]

I love that the woman with a biology degree knew almost immediately this is BS.

[mimithemermaid]

This quote comes to mind: “All that is needed for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing. “
I wonder how many people knew or should have known, but remained silent…

[phaedrussmith]

“This is what happens when you work to change things, First they think you're crazy, then they fight you, and then all of a sudden the jury comes back with guilty verdicts on four counts of wire fraud.”

[hyacinthlynch]

My favorite person in this whole story is Dr Phyllis Gardner, the Stanford professor who never believed this (Theranos) could be possible and thought that Holmes may have committed fraud.

[Tsudkyk]

While in the military, one of my fellow electrical engineers left the command to work on this project. When he came back he said “I can’t say a lot, but they will never figure it out. It doesn’t work. There is too much secrecy, too many limitations and the entire thing is based off an idea that is simply a pipe dream.”

He told us other details that painted a picture of a “perception is reality” culture within the company. He was 100% accurate in his claims.

[samansiddiquie]

John Carreyrou deserves all the awards and recognition. He is a brilliant journalist

[brwneyesaz]

She caused a senior scientist to commit suicide. I hope she's being sued for contributing to his death. What an awful person.

[williamaperrow]

I am a retired Medical Laboratory Technologist and graduated with an Associate in Science degree at Elizabeth Seton College in Yonkers, NY in 1977. I have over 40 years in clinical laboratories beginning at Columbia Presbyterian MC in NYC and my initial specialty was in clinical chemistry and pediatric special chemistry. Pediatric chemistries were rarely drawn with adult vacutainer tubes of blood due to the risk of causing anemia. Micro samples were therefore typically collected for analysis and the quantities were similar to the amounts Elizabeth Holmes used in testing adults. When I first read about her analyzer I knew immediately that her claims were pure fiction from my many years of experience in laboratory techniques. Her samples were not even collected and stored appropriately and her analyzer was never peer reviewed nor was it tested by licensed pathologist.

[mnbjnzc]

As a retired medical technologist with many years of lab experience I am appalled that ANYONE could get suckered in and believe a drop of blood could accomplish all off these claims . It takes a lot of education, use of controls and specifications to be accurate . This is not a game ! It’s a dangerous harmful risk to patients lives. Unbelievable reckless behavior .

[rjddurhamnc]

Love how she puts on the lab coat and walks around like she actually knows something.

[John_Q]

That whistleblower is a hero. This entire scenario is hilarious. So many delusional and greedy investors got swindled by an obvious con-artist, but were blinded by hype.

[josepha]

I heard Walgreens sent their own guy to checkup on Theranos. He immediately reported trouble there to Walgreens but Walgreens didn't want to believe him. They were totally sold on what Holmes was pitching. They thought their own investigator must be wrong.

[androd]

So much respect for Shultz, Chung, and the other employees that helped with exposing her. Though few, good to know there are still people with integrity in these companies. I hope they throw the book at her. Holmes and Aswari may not look like serial killers we are used to hearing about, but that’s exactly what they were.

[philpritchettphan]

One thing in my experience working in startups, be extremely wary of the word "disrupt." Every company that claims to be "disrupting the [x] industry" is a company without a real product. That word is a huge sign that they've simply slapped their name on existing technology, and are hiding it behind a slick a landing page.

[CASD]

I have so much respect for these two ex employees. Standing up and speaking up...so rare! I hope those ppl responsible at Walgreens who agreed on this deal are no longer there!

[MarinePoolee]

She was guilty of defrauding the investor. She was not guilty of defrauding the patients. Let that sink in.

[debfrazin]

The silver lining of this saga: Betsy DeVos and Rupert Murdock each lost $100 Million dollars.

[ashianagi]

I think a huge lesson can be learned from this. Elizabeth’s passion was money not the idea itself. I think that was her main issue. She didn’t care about the product, the people she’s helping, or the impact her product would have. She wanted to become a billionaire and it was obvious. She lied and manipulated not because she believed her product would work, but because she knew that she’s making money from selling an idea. And I think she knew that one day this would come crashing down. She didn’t care because she reached her goal of becoming a billionaire. So the lesson here is be passionate about the product and the mission not the success the follows.