By MICHAEL LIEDTKE – AP Technology Writer
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – The jury that will weigh eleven fraud and conspiracy charges against former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes finally received the case on Friday afternoon after a three-month trial that fascinated Silicon Valley.
The handover came after the opposing side’s lawyers completed a second day of careful concluding arguments to summarize their respective interpretations of the evidence presented to the jury. This included the testimony of 32 witnesses – including Holmes himself – and more than 900 exhibits.
The eight men and four women on the jury began their deliberations late Friday and will take the weekend off before moving on Monday morning to decide whether Holmes turned their blood testing startup into a massive scam. If convicted on all counts, Holmes, 37, faces up to 20 years in prison.
In his final attempt to convince the jury to acquittal, Holmes attorney Kevin Downey compared her final days leading a then staggering Theranos to a captain bravely trying to save a sinking ship.
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If Holmes had committed any crimes, she would have hurried overboard like a frightened rat, Downey told the jury as he completed about five hours of closing arguments. The federal prosecutor’s office explained for three hours on Thursday why the jury should convict them.
Regarding a turning point in 2016 that threatened to ruin Theranos, Downey asked the jury, “Has she gone? No, she stayed. Why? Because she believed in this technology. “
As on Thursday, Downey re-portrayed Holmes as a well-meaning entrepreneur who never stopped perfecting Theranos’ blood testing technology and using it to improve health care.
“She believed she was going to develop technology that would change the world,” Downey announced on Friday.
Federal Prosecutor John Bostic offered a rebuttal, arguing that Holmes put her attempts to save Theranos under scrutiny that gave her few other options. He cited evidence to argue that she was constantly trying to deceive people when she thought she could get away with her alleged ruse.
“She took the wrong path at so many forked paths,” said Bostic.
Bostic’s rebuttal reflected many of the issues raised in Thursday’s arguments when prosecutor Jeffrey Schenk labeled Holmes a charlatan who brazenly lied to get rich and famous. Those supposed goals were met in 2014 when Holmes became a media sensation with an estimated net worth of $ 4.5 billion based on its 50% stake in Theranos.
The trial revolves around allegations that Holmes misled investors, business partners and patients about Theranos’ technology. She repeatedly claimed that the company’s new test device could scan hundreds of diseases and other problems with a few drops of blood taken with a finger prick instead of a needle inserted into a vein.
The concept was so compelling that Theranos and Holmes raised more than $ 900 million, some from billionaire investors like media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and software titan Larry Ellison. The Palo Alto, Calif. Company has also negotiated potentially lucrative deals with major retailers Walgreens and Safeway. Holmes soon began to grace the covers of national magazines as a child prodigy.
Unknown to most people outside of Theranos, the company’s blood test technology was flawed and often gave inaccurate results that could have put the lives of the patients taking the tests at risk.
After the shortcomings were exposed in 2015 and 2016, Theranos eventually collapsed. The Ministry of Justice filed its criminal case in 2018.
“People have lost money,” Downey admitted on Friday. “This is a bad event and a failure on (Holmes’) part.” But none of this is criminal, he added.
Downey told the jury that Holmes did not realize the extent of the problems until a Theranos lab director informed them in March 2016 that the company had had to invalidate 60,000 of its previous blood tests.
Had Holmes believed any crimes had been committed, Downey suspected she would have tried to cover them up and perhaps sell some of her stock. Not only did she never sell a stock, Downey said, she continued to try to save the company. Her turnaround efforts included the ousting of Theranos’ chief operating officer Sunny Balwani, who had also been her mistress.
In a dramatic twist on the witness stand last month, Holmes testified that Balwani secretly controlled her diet, friendships and more while subjecting her to psychological, emotional and sexual abuse. Although the statement threw Holmes as Balwanis pawn, Downey never mentioned the alleged abuse and its effects on Holmes during his closing arguments.
The jury must consider whether partner abuse may have influenced some of their decisions at Theranos. In the prosecution’s closing statement, Schenk reminded the jury that convicting Holmes of fraud does not mean that they disregard their abuse allegations.
Bostic took up the issue again on Friday, telling jurors not to let sympathy sway their decision on the fraud allegations. “In this case, there is an extensive record of fraud charges,” he said. “There is much less evidence of what happened between Miss Holmes and Mr. Balwani.”
Balwani’s attorney denied Holmes’ allegations in court documents that the jury had never seen. Jury members also never heard from Balwani, who intended to rely on his Fifth Amendment right to self-indictment to testify. Balwani, 56, faces similar allegations of fraud in a separate trial due to begin in February.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed in any way without permission.
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