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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

#521

Post by briandear »

eggpy wrote: post #400
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…

Well, according to Forbes, Holmes is worth _nothing_[0], so $500,000 is probably fairly painful. Plus, relinquishing ~19 million shares regardless of their value has to hurt. Also she no longer has the majority of votes in her own company. And as a CEO who can't be an officer of a public company for 10 years, yeah that probably really hurts too. Not to mention her name is effectively toxic pretty much forever now. So…

19 million shares of a company worth nothing?

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

#522

Post by briandear »

unquietcode wrote: post #95

You can commit most crimes in this world with relative impunity, but the number one rule is never steal from the rich.

That's ridiculous. She would have gotten thrown in jail if she carried an ounce of cocaine. "Stealing from the rich" resulted in a "civil" violation. Big deal.

When the Department of Justice charges, convicts and throws her in prision -- then we can talk about the "number one rule."

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

#523

Post by throwaway1748 »

shaki-dora wrote: post #363
Ice_cream_suit wrote: post #344

From the Financial Times: Here's the nuance of her formula: Commit fraud as an attractive, well-connected WASP woman who happened to be neighbors with well-connected VC Draper family. Tell a great story: Stanford drop-out who studied Chinese, afraid of needles, wants to help the world. Leverage Silicon Valley connections to pull in other really big fish, such as Kissinger, et al, who would be really, really embarrass…

Be a man: “what a scammer” Be a woman: “this woman used her gender to scam”

No, be Elizabeth Holmes and Tim Draper and use gender as a means to dismiss valid investigative reporting from the Wall Street Journal.

And yeah, bad actors will sometimes use accusations of sexism / racism / etc-isms to silence those speaking the truth about them.

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

#524

Post by sah2ed »

jpatokal wrote: post #495
casawa wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"He and his parents have spent more than $400,000 on legal fees" for doing the right thing https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-whistleblower-shook-th...

Here are Tyler Shultz's grandfather and his wife: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P._Shultz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Mailliard_Shultz It's unlikely that $400k will drive the family to bankruptcy.

You are making a subtle mistake here. Tyler's legal defence came from his parents' finances, not his grandparents.

Also, Tyler opting to become a whistleblower on Theranos caused a strain between his grandfather, who is a Theranos board member, and his own family.

So unless they resolve the impasse, it is unlikely that the grandfather will offer a helping hand (financially) to his son and grandson after outing the fraud in a company associated with him.

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

#525

Post by charlesdm »

onecooldev24 wrote: post #510
EpicEng wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

"Nothing unethical was done it him, he was convicted and sentenced accordingly" Dumbfounded by your words, a 800% increase from the average sentence is, I think completely ok in a just system.

But there are generally ranges someone can be convicted in, for certain crimes 1 to 5 years, 5 to 10, etc.

That he got an 800% increase in sentence doesn't matter, as long as the conviction fell within the ranges set up by the law.

You can call a judge biased, but if he feels it's a correct sentence, then you're out of luck. You do know that is why we have judges right? In part to make judgement calls on sentences.

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

#526

Post by mseebach »

danso wrote: post #408
ravitation wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

It's probably more accurate to say that, at the time he became a whistleblower, he had reasonable idea to believe that it could wreck his life. From the WSJ article: http://archive.is/wO4B0#selection-955.0-958.0 > He says he was told by his parents that Ms. Holmes called the elder Mr. Shultz in the summer of 2015 to complain that their son was being unreasonable. Tyler Shultz says he also got a tip that private inves…

If you're involved in a complicated legal case, and you're not 100% sure what you're doing, no speaking to the press at all is your first preference, by a wide margin, and only speaking to the press in carefully considered, short, written statements in your second. Actually speaking to the press is for those with nothing to lose, and plenty to win -- or specialised training.

This is exacerbated by the dynamic that the part of the press you'll feel most eager to speak to, is that which are making upsetting misrepresentations about you or something you care about -- ie., those who have something to gain by manipulating you to say something controversial or incriminating.

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

#527

Post by onecooldev24 »

charlesdm wrote: post #525
onecooldev24 wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nothing unethical was done it him, he was convicted and sentenced accordingly" Dumbfounded by your words, a 800% increase from the average sentence is, I think completely ok in a just system.

But there are generally ranges someone can be convicted in, for certain crimes 1 to 5 years, 5 to 10, etc. That he got an 800% increase in sentence doesn't matter, as long as the conviction fell within the ranges set up by the law. You can call a judge biased, but if he feels it's a correct sentence, then you're out of luck. You do know that is why we have judges right? In part to make judgement calls on sentences.

Well then I would love if you got a 3 year sentence for jaywalking.

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

#529

Post by copenja »

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…

So, you are under the impression your connections gave you these opportunities out of friendship, not because they thought you were great for the job?

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

#530

Post by [deleted] »

yters wrote: post #358

Why is there such a culture of fake it till you make it in SV? If the tech is good, no need for faking. If the tech is bad, figure it out, don't fake it. Otherwise, if it doesn't work and it is faked, things will get really bad and at worst lives could be lost. It seems like there is a lot of stupid money around and a lot of scam artists trying to suck the supply dry.

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