Elizabeth Holmes
![Holmes in 2014](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Elizabeth_Holmes_2014_cropped.jpg)
The decline of Theranos began in 2015, when a series of journalistic and regulatory investigations revealed doubts about the company's claims and whether Holmes had misled investors and the government. In 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Theranos, Holmes, and former Theranos chief operating officer (COO) Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani with raising $700 million from investors through a "massive 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 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.
In June 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Holmes and Balwani on fraud charges. 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 years at Federal Prison Camp, Bryan, beginning on May 30, 2023. She and Balwani were fined $452 million to be paid to the victims of the fraud. The credibility of Theranos was attributed in part to Holmes's personal connections and ability to recruit the support of influential people, including Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, James Mattis, and Betsy DeVos, all of whom had served or would go on to serve as U.S. presidential cabinet officials.
Holmes was in a clandestine romantic relationship with Balwani during most of Theranos's history. Following the collapse of Theranos, she started dating hotel heir Billy Evans, with whom she has two children. Theranos and Holmes's career are the subject of books, movies and TV shows. Provided by Wikipedia
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