Elizabeth Holmes

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was charged with "massive fraud" by the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday March 14 2018, a downbeat coda to a once high-flying Silicon Valley start-up that promised to revolutionize the blood analysis process. The SEC complaint charged that Theranos raised more than $700 million from late 2013 to 2015 while "deceiving investors by making it appear as if Theranos had successfully developed a commercially-ready portable blood analyzer" that could perform a full range of laboratory tests from a small sample of blood. Holmes, 34, who once graced the cover of countless magazines and was worth billions on paper, has already settled the charges against her. She will pay a $500,000 penalty, be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years, and return 18.9 million shares she amassed during the alleged fraud. Holmes also cedes her voting control of the company she founded in 2003 at the age of 19 after dropping out of Stanford University in order to pursue her start-up. Theranos and Holmes neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the SEC's complaint and the settlements are subject to court approval. Elizabeth Holmes is Founder and CEO of Theranos, a company transforming lab diagnostics. With their new technology, soon available at every Walgreens, a single drop of blood (or any other fluid) can be used for multiple tests at a fraction of current costs. Elizabeth started Theranos a decade ago (at age 19) after dropping out of Stanford, where she had studied microfluidics and nanotechnology. Elizabeth envisions empowered patients who can take control of their health through real-time diagnosis and monitoring, with testing that has open and transparent pricing schemes. Among her board of advisors are a former senator, general, and secretary of state. Prior to Theranos, while still in high school, Elizabeth started a business to distribute C++ software to Asian universities.