Her platinum-dyed hair is now a softer blonde, arranged in a natural wave. The red lipstick has gone in favor of a new-faced nude.
The message she sent was clear: getting to court this week for Silicon Valley’s “Process of the Century” was a very different Elizabeth Holmes.
The fascinating 37-year-old, once christened the “female Steve Jobs”, has seen her meteoric star fall rapidly since she was wrapped in one of the most extraordinary sagas of hubris, ambition and deception in the world. technological has never seen.
Once celebrated as a parameter of the “disruptive magic” of technology culture, the abandonment of Stanford University was destined to go down in history after building a blood testing company that had the potential to revolutionize global healthcare. .
Elizabeth Holmes is seen leaving the court in San Jose, California. He is accused of fraud and theft of $ 700 million, apparently throwing wool in the eyes of wealthy investors, patients and the entire scientific community flogging a technology that, as it turned out, simply did not work.
In 2013 Holmes won a multi-million dollar contract with the American pharmacy chain Walgreens to perform in-store blood tests for customers. However, it turned out that only 15 of the 240 tests that Theranos offered were performed on the machines. “It was little more than a trash can,” a former colleague said. (Above, Holmes out of court on September 8)
Along the way she became an icon for millions of women, an example of female empowerment.
As the youngest female billionaire in the world, she showed that you could still be feminine and desirable while “kicking ass” in the boardroom.
But the bubble of self-confidence has already really exploded.
Holmes is accused of fraud and theft worth $ 700 million, apparently throwing wool in the eyes of wealthy investors, patients and the entire scientific community scourging a technology that turned out to simply not work.
The circus-like atmosphere Wednesday at the San Jose courthouse in California, where the trial will take place over the next 13 weeks, was almost adequate, given the circumstances.
In 2003, at the age of 19, Holmes left his degree in chemical engineering to start Theranos. Holmes, with a phobia of needles, had designed what appeared to be a promising new technology: a black box that could perform hundreds of blood tests to identify health conditions using a single blood sample by pricking his fingers.
Because the big question at the bottom of it all is: Is Holmes a scammer, or just how can you make her believe in her recently humble behavior, a deceived victim who believed her own hype?
One of the sources, who met with Holmes periodically while being praised at brilliant awards ceremonies and presented as a cover girl for prestigious publications such as Forbes magazine, told The Mail last night: “The people wanted to believe in it.There are tens of thousands of failing companies for every Apple, Google, Facebook or Tesla that are successful.
Everyone exaggerates to some extent. When you met Elizabeth, you had no doubt that she believed in her own genius.
“She was young and beautiful, but she was also smart and had a seemingly great idea that turned her into a $ 9 billion company.
“She was living the dream.”
But those who exposed the farce in the center interpret the fairy tale with much more obscurity. Wall Street Journal journalist John Carreyrou, who wrote Bad Blood’s best-selling book on his research on the affair, says, “I think he has absolutely sociopathic tendencies. One of those trends is the pathological lie. “
Whatever the truth, it will now be investigated in the long-awaited trial of Holmes.
She sat impassively as the prosecutor read 12 crimes of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud that could see her spend the next 20 years in prison, if convicted.
The central argument of prosecutors is that Holmes knew it was a scam. “He lied and cheated to earn billions,” U.S. Attorney Robert Leach told the court.
His defense attorney, Lance Wade, insists the opposite is true. Holmes, she says, is only guilty of being an ambitious, perhaps naive, young woman who set out to “change the world.” So what is it?
In 2003, at the age of 19, Holmes dropped out of his degree in chemical engineering to start Theranos.
Holmes, with a phobia of needles, had designed what appeared to be a promising new technology: a black box that could perform hundreds of blood tests to identify health conditions using a single blood sample by pricking his fingers.
When Holmes became the youngest billionaire woman in the world, at the age of 31, in 2015, she had enchanted some of the most powerful and influential men on the planet.
Two former U.S. secretaries of state, Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, invested in Theranos and served on the board.
Holmes’ defense attorney, Lance Wade, says she is guilty of nothing more than being an ambitious, perhaps naive, young woman who set out to “change the world.”
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch was so delighted that he became its largest investor for $ 100 million.
But the mystery had always surrounded technology itself. No one was allowed to examine the machine independently.
In 2013 Holmes won a multi-million dollar contract with the American pharmacy chain Walgreens to perform in-store blood tests for customers.
However, it turned out that only 15 of the 240 tests that Theranos offered were performed on the machines. “It was little more than a trash can,” a former colleague said.
Then Holmes’ alleged catalog of lies began to fall apart.
The complainants went to the Wall Street Journal, owned by Murdoch, and published a series of stories exposing the technology as a scam. Holmes was charged with several counts of fraud in 2018.
A jury of five men and seven women will resume knowledge of the case on Tuesday. Many in the audience firmly refuse to believe Holmes is a scam.
“She still has an aura about her,” a local TV journalist observed. Now he has to convince a jury of his teammates that he is innocent. If anyone can get it, it’s her.
And this would undoubtedly be Holmes ’most daring feat to date.