Federal prosecutors indicted Theranos Inc founder Elizabeth Holmes on criminal fraud charges for allegedly defrauding investors, doctors and the public as the head of the once-heralded blood-testing start-up.
Federal prosecutors also brought charged former Theranos chief operating officer Ramesh Balwani.
Holmes, who was once considered a wunderkind of Silicon Valley, and Balwani are charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud each, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said late on Friday.
If convicted, they could face prison sentences that would keep them behind bars for the rest of their lives and total fines of US$2.75 million each.
Prosecutors said that Holmes and Balwani deliberately misled investors, policymakers and the public about the accuracy of Theranos’ blood testing technologies from at least 2013.
Holmes, 34, founded Theranos in Palo Alto, California, in 2003, pitching its technology as a cheaper way to run dozens of blood tests.
Holmes said that Theranos had discovered a new way of conducting blood testing, one able to conduct dozens of tests with just a prick of a finger and few droplets of blood.
A notoriously secretive company, Theranos shared very little about its blood-testing machine, nicknamed Edison, with the public or medical community.
Holmes said she was inspired to start the company in response to her fear of needles.
She carefully crafted her image as well, consistently wearing black turtleneck sweaters that earned her the moniker “the next Steve Jobs.”
Investors bought what Holmes was selling and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the company. At one time, Theranos was worth more than US$10 billion and Holmes was the US’ youngest self-made female billionaire.
However, an investigation by the Wall Street Journal two years ago found that Theranos’ technology was inaccurate at best and that the company was using routine blood-testing equipment for the vast majority of its tests.
The story raised concerns about the accuracy of Theranos’ blood testing technology, which put patients at risk of having conditions either misdiagnosed or ignored.
The Wall Street Journal’s investigation marked the beginning of the end of Theranos. Walgreens ended its blood-testing partnership with the company and the US Department of Health and Human Services in 2016 effectively barred Theranos from conducting any blood tests at all.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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