Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for defrauding investors in her blood-testing startup, which was once valued at $9 billion.
The former Silicon Valley star claimed her technology could diagnose disease with just a few drops of blood.
Holmes, 38, who is pregnant, tearfully told the court she felt "deep pain" for those who were deceived. She was found guilty in January after a three-month trial. Holmes is expected to appeal the sentence, which was handed down Friday in a California court.
Once billed as "the next Steve Jobs", she was once said to be the world's youngest self-made billionaire.
Elizabeth Holmes was 19 years old when she dropped out of the famous American university "Standford" and decided to "change the world". In 2004, she created Theranos, a portmanteau of the words "Therapy" and "Diagnosis". This startup promised that just through a drop of blood from a painless prick of the fingertip and through a machine, it would detect all possible diseases, detectable through blood.
All the media wrote about it, including Time, Forbes, New Yorker, etc. Holmes went from an unknown to a household name in Silicon Valley and managed to amass billions of dollars in wealth by defrauding investors. She was considered the queen of the male-dominated Silicon Valley.
Por hetimet tregun se pas historisë së suksesit të Theranos-it, fshiheshin procedura laboratorike dhe rezultate të dyshimta. Prokurorët e përshkruan atë si një sharlatan të fiksuar pas famës dhe pasurisë.
"Jam e shkatërruar nga dështimet e mia. Kam ndjerë dhimbje për atë që kanë kaluar njerëzit,” i tha ajo gjykatës të premten. Gjykatësi i tha asaj: "Dështimi është normal. Por dështimi duke mashtruar njerëzit nuk është në rregull.”
Disa njerëz i kanë shkruar gjykatës që ta falë. Grupi vuri në dukje se Holmes është një nënë e re. Ajo lindi një djalë në korrik 2021 dhe aktualisht është shtatzënë me fëmijën e saj të dytë.
Eileen Lepera, një sekretare e Silicon Valley e cila humbi një pjesë të kursimeve të jetës duke investuar në Theranos, i tha BBC-së se ishte "e lumtur" me dënimin.
"I think it's fair, considering all the facts of the case," she said. "Elizabeth Holmes knew it was fraud and put people's lives at risk."
