Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will face jury of seven men and five women in fraud trial
Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and former CEO of blood testing and life sciences firm Theranos, arrives for the primary day of jury choice in her fraud trial, exterior Federal Court in San Jose, California on August 31, 2021.
Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and former CEO of blood testing and life sciences firm Theranos, arrives for the primary day of jury choice in her fraud trial, exterior Federal Court in San Jose, California on August 31, 2021.
Nick Otto | AFP | Getty Images
SAN JOSE, CALIF. – A jury of seven men and five women will decide the fate of Theranos founder and ex-CEO Elizabeth Holmes.
The 12-person panel from Santa Clara County, the place Theranos was based mostly, was chosen after two days of intense questioning concerning their information of the failed blood-testing firm. If convicted, Holmes might face 20 years in jail
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Prosecutors and protection attorneys settled on a various set of jurors close to race, gender and age. Along with five alternates — two men and three women — the jurors had been sworn in Thursday morning on the San Jose federal courthouse. Opening statements are set to start on Wednesday.
Holmes, who was a paper billionaire based mostly on her stake in Theranos, faces a dozen counts of wire fraud and conspiracy expenses for allegedly defrauding traders and sufferers about her firm’s expertise. She has pleaded not guilty and denies any wrongdoing.
Holmes dropped out of Stanford in 2003 to begin Theranos at age 19. She raised billions of {dollars} from traders corresponding to media mogul Rupert Murdoch, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Walton household. Some traders are anticipated to testify on the trial.
The firm’s downfall started in 2015, when former Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou printed a sequence of damning articles exposing Theranos’ doubtful enterprise practices and expertise limitations.
Throughout jury questioning, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila, who’s presiding over the trial, reminded potential jurors in regards to the significance of avoiding media, a specific problem for a case that is attracted heavy protection in Silicon Valley and world wide.
One juror, an older white man, mentioned “oh boy” after his identify was known as out to affix the jury field.
“Let’s be clear, they know the media is in this case,” Davila informed the courtroom on Wednesday. He repeatedly informed the jurors to “flip off these information feeds.”
The two days of jury choice had been tense and dramatic at instances with dozens of potential jurors admitting that they had prior information of Holmes and Theranos. Some even expressed their disappointment in studying of Holmes’ spectacular fall from grace.
“There’s not that many women that get to turn out to be CEO of a high-powered firm,” one potential feminine juror, who had learn Carreyrou’s ebook, “Bad Blood,” informed Davila on Tuesday.
Another potential male juror mentioned he adopted Theranos throughout its rise and admitted he “was disenchanted as a result of I assumed the corporate was so cool.”
Some of these questioned even grew to become emotional whereas sharing harrowing experiences of home violence. That was after newly unsealed paperwork revealed Holmes’ plans to have an professional testify that Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her ex-boyfriend and former COO of Theranos, subjected her to intimate associate abuse.
Balwani denies the allegations. He will be tried individually for his position in the Theranos scandal.
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