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Theranos, CEO Holmes, and Former President Balwani Charged with Fraud

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Re: Theranos, CEO Holmes, and Former President Balwani Charged with Fraud

#441

Post by EpicEng »

matt4077 wrote: post #119
briandear wrote: post #82

So do those of us accused of sexism for not supporting Holmes a few years ago now get vindicated? Attacking her competence and questioning the Theranos Kool-Aid was seen as sexist and unfair, but it turns out we were right — she is a criminal — or at least a civil violator of securities law.

The accusations (at least the ones I made) were never about her guilt or innocence. From what I remember, HN and similar just had dozens and dozens articles each week on this case, far more than for other, comparable cases. MtGox was around the same time, I believe. My subjective impression was also that Holmes featured far more prominently in the articles and discussions than male CEOs in other cases. Here is one co…

And if he had said

>The FBI should recommend charges for this Holmes guy.

No one would think twice. Stop looking for reasons to be outraged, you'll be better off for it.

Re: Theranos, CEO Holmes, and Former President Balwani Charged with Fraud

#442

Post by AndyMcConachie »

nathanaldensr wrote: post #2

Theranos and Holmes have agreed to settle the fraud charges levied against them. Holmes agreed to pay a $500,000 penalty, be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years, return the remaining 18.9 million shares that she obtained during the fraud, and relinquish her voting control of Theranos by converting her super-majority Theranos Class B Common shares to Class A Common shares. Du…

It's a slap on the wrist compared to the crime.

Re: Theranos, CEO Holmes, and Former President Balwani Charged with Fraud

#443

Post by EpicEng »

onecooldev24 wrote: post #334
charlesdm wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Martin Shkreli was, honest to god, an idiot. He got several chances to "kiss the ring" and show remorse, and what did he do? He put some extra oil on the fire and kept acting like an idiot until the very last moment. Sometimes you need to realise when to fold and suck it up.

Acting like a idiot is not ILLEGAL !!!

If you think that your attitude and words have no bearing on what happens to you in these situations you're beyond naive. The justice system is made up of people, not robots. Nothing unethical was done it him, he was convicted and sentenced accordingly.

If you get pulled over and call the cops a dick the second he walks up to your car, you're gonna have a bad time (and you deserve it.)

Re: Theranos, CEO Holmes, and Former President Balwani Charged with Fraud

#444

Post by throwawayjava »

georgeecollins wrote: post #420
throwawayjava wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "is likely to be" part is not true in general. Changing that "likely to be" into a "may be" would make the statement true(r) without the if-clause. Also if the if-clause stated "suspected of" rather than "convicted of", then the "is likely to be" part would be true in general.

Let me show why I believe what I said. I'm no expert, and I would like it if you could clarify my understanding of why you think seizure of assets is not likely. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United...

Yes, I know exactly what you were referring to.

I think this sentence is accurate: If you are suspected of drug dealing, any asset that you can't prove you received through other legal means is likely to be subject to seizure.

I think this sentence is accurate: any asset that you can't prove you received through other legal means MAY be subject to seizure.

I think this one isn't accurate, though: any asset that you can't prove you received through other legal means is likely to be subject to seizure.

Maybe I'm just surrounded by extremely lucky people, but none of the people around me (all of whom aren't partaking in illegal behavior / have never been suspected of illegal behavior) have had the police show up and randomly take their stuff.

Re: Theranos, CEO Holmes, and Former President Balwani Charged with Fraud

#445

Post by nerfhammer »

harryh wrote: post #417
spaceflunky wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This will wipe her out Will it though? Surely Holmes still has a few million stashed away somewhere that she can live comfortably off of? This settlement isn't going to leave her destitute. Either that or I'm sure she set up some clever offshore accounting structure that has $10M stashed in the cook islands or some shit. As soon as you get some cash, I think "rich person 101" is you set up some complicated structure…

Matt Levine at Bloomberg says she never sold any shares and was paid a fairly modest salary for her role. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-14/theranos-...

It's right there in the civil complaint. Dunno if there were any other forms of compensation, but at first glance it does sound like she lost everything:

> Holmes was paid a salary of approximately $200,000 to $390,000 per year between 2013 and 2015. During the same period, she also exercised approximately 53.7 million stock options and received super-majority voting, Class B common shares, which granted her almost complete voting control over the company. Holmes has never sold any of her Theranos stock.

https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2018/comp-pr2018-4...

Re: Theranos, CEO Holmes, and Former President Balwani Charged with Fraud

#446

Post by babesh »

scarmig wrote: post #397
BadassFractal wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked the bit where they tried to use the "women in tech are oppressed" narrative to cover her ass: > Tim Draper, the founding partner of Draper Associates and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, appeared on television on Tuesday—not for the first time—to defend Holmes and Theranos. In an interview on Closing Bell, the world’s most loyal V.C. said Holmes has been “totally attacked,” and that she is “a great example of maybe w…

It's not too surprising. As soon as any kind of principle, good or bad, starts to have some kind of power when it's invoked, bad actors will swarm around it to use it for their own ends.

It isn't just bad actors. Its our fawning nature. I think that many people were reluctant to question Theranos precisely because she was a female entrepreneur.

Nowadays, you have many, many successful female tech entrepreneurs: stitch, bumble, ipsy, etc... and hopefully we are past the fawning phase and can apply critical thinking.

Re: Theranos, CEO Holmes, and Former President Balwani Charged with Fraud

#447

Post by taf2 »

ravitation wrote: post #399
Balgair wrote: post #280

His name is Tyler Shultz. He is the main reason we know know what Theranos was doing. He had his life destroyed, he knew it would happen, what Theranos would do to him, and he did the right thing all the same. Tyler Shultz is a hero. Never let someone tell you that you don't matter. Try hard to do what is right. We need more people like him, be one of them too. Be like Tyler Shultz. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/20…

Wait... How did he have his life destroyed? It just says that he hasn't talked to his grandfather in awhile... He went on to start a biotech company (that seems to be doing alright) and was a Forbes 30 under 30 in 2017... I don't see how his life was destroyed...

and this would create a pretty awesome movie... think "erin brockovich"

Re: Theranos, CEO Holmes, and Former President Balwani Charged with Fraud

#448

Post by brandmeyer »

ascendantlogic wrote: post #283
heliodor wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My interpretation is that most startups don't deal with life-or-death lines of work, whereas Theranos does. There's no room for "creative" business practices there. The government will take note at some point and come chasing.

Yes, if you want to lie about some drone-based burrito delivery service you're probably not gonna draw the same ire as life-saving medical equipment. Although if you swindle investors for over $700 million in either case I imagine the SEC will be knocking at your door eventually.

> drone-based burrito delivery service

Not joking, I have heard this pitch.

Re: Theranos, CEO Holmes, and Former President Balwani Charged with Fraud

#449

Post by jyrkesh »

dnautics wrote: post #378
ericd wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one way to get funding, but it's certainly not the only way, there are lots of counterexamples. As one obvious counterexample, one of the founding principles of YC is providing an open application process to provide people who don't have any personal connections access to the SV network. Larry and Sergey weren't well connected when they started, either, afaik, as most PhD students aren't. If you're doing somet…

I think incorrect (or even correct, but rare) narratives are dangerous. Especially when they're the feel-good type that people tell to make themselves feel better about the way the world works. (meritocracy, egalitarianism, etc) Anecdata, but: I left academic hard science because I realized it was too difficult to get ahead; moved to the bay since I can code and it was a way to create a runway and find myself, and pi…

Yeah, I don't think any of your friends offered you a position because you're they're friend. They offered you a position because they knew you AND they knew you were smart/talented/a coder/whatever.

I got my first foot in the door via an internship on a referral from a friend who had interned there the year before. I had no formal credentials (just taking CS classes on the side of an Econ degree in college), but I had spent all of my math/CS classes studying with this kid. He knew I was smart and put his own ass on the line to get me an interview.

You can be successful purely by reading books in a room, writing code alone, and building some brilliant startup. (E.g. look at the CD Baby guy, what's his name). But it's SUPER unlikely. You're way better off being a social human being, building relationships/trust, and paying it back/forward to folks that do right by you when you know you deserve it.

Re: Theranos, CEO Holmes, and Former President Balwani Charged with Fraud

#450

Post by BadassFractal »

babesh wrote: post #446
scarmig wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not too surprising. As soon as any kind of principle, good or bad, starts to have some kind of power when it's invoked, bad actors will swarm around it to use it for their own ends.

It isn't just bad actors. Its our fawning nature. I think that many people were reluctant to question Theranos precisely because she was a female entrepreneur. Nowadays, you have many, many successful female tech entrepreneurs: stitch, bumble, ipsy, etc... and hopefully we are past the fawning phase and can apply critical thinking.

Exactly. In an industry as sensitive as ours, criticizing Holmes could easily get you labeled as a sexist. Especially on mediums where nuance is hardly achievable, such as Twitter. People's confirmation bias is a real problem in these scenarios.
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