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U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

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Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#261

Post by pharrington »

api wrote: post #185
wpietri wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the patterns that interests me a lot is supernormal stimulus. An organism is evolved to deal with a stimulus in a certain range, and something comes along that is so far outside it that things break. The classic example is Niko Tinbergen, who created models of fish that were rounder and redder than the real fish, who would ignore other real fish and focus on the models. The human ability to refine things produ…

Wow. That is by far the most realistic and rational hypothesis for this phenomenon I've heard. It's simple, elegant, and seems testable. Thanks! I think this may also offer some explanation for the appeal of the utterly absurd, like flat Earth or galactic emperor Xenu. Its supernormally ridiculous, which invokes a sense of fascination. In any case if this is true I think this effect is being weaponized today to an un…

High profile sociopaths are extreme outliers, as most sociopaths burn through their social connections well before becoming competent enough at social manipulation and finding enough people that are well-off enough to maintain a parasitic life.

Also as a side note, within Scientology you don't actually learn about the Xenu shit until you're way too deep, financially and/or time commitment-wise, to pull out.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#262

Post by rdiddly »

konschubert wrote: post #162
meowface wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They knew it didn't work, but kept selling it anyway, which is where it went from just faking it to outright fraud. I'm playing Devil's advocate and not justifying or defending their fraud and the physical harm they caused, but if we were to look at Holmes' intentions, I'm suspecting it was something like "we just need to do this for a few months/years until our technology works", rather than "let's just run this sc…

No, it's just that annoying mentality of "fake it till you make it".

Also known as "Fake it while awaiting unknown outcome." It's not like faking it guarantees making it. And since "unknown outcome" is kind of the default always, the most concise statement of this approach is really just "Fake it." Which is the problem. "Fake it" is so bad, that even if you later "make it" (like Shkreli for example), you still don't get forgiven.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#263

Post by maxxxxx »

dralley wrote: post #206
maxxxxx wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She certainly is not a good person but a lot of blame should be put on the VCs and board members. They could have figured things out if they had bothered to look.

That's true, but Elizabeth owned more than 90% of the voting shares in the company. The board was basically a formality because they had no power to make decisions whatsoever.

Then they should have resigned. Either you do your job or you should go. We shouldn't make excuses for highly paid people.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#264

Post by zebnyc »

paulie_a wrote: post #177
konschubert wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's just that annoying mentality of "fake it till you make it".

Fake it until you make it is just a nice way of saying fraud. People that do that are being deceitful and should be publicly shamed and face criminal prosecution in some cases. They are scam artists, not honest entrepreneurs.

Are you going to say that to the founders of reddit & airbnb?

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#265

Post by yeeeeeeeeee »

pchristensen wrote: post #112

For anyone interested in the Theranos story, the reporter that wrote this article (John Carreyrou) is the same one whose investigation brought down Theranos. He wrote a book called "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup" ( https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Blood-Secrets-Silicon-Startup/dp/... ). He was also recently on the podcast This Week in Startups to discuss Theranos: http://thisweekinstartups.com/joh…

Shoulda hit us with the affiliate link.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#266

Post by mchannon »

tptacek wrote: post #228
mchannon wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a victim, offering highly pertinent experiences to inform the opinions of the HN crowd. It doesn't matter if my tone offends your sensibilities. I feel like you're playing judge, jury, and executioner. Leave the pitchforks and torches for the judicial system in this country. What if they get found not guilty, or more likely (but still unlikely) the feds quietly drop the case?

You were convicted both of a scheme where you bypassed OfficeMax's limits on the number of printer cartridges any one person could redeem, and for a separate scheme where you claimed the purchases of strangers as your own to cash in on their rebates. A lot of people here might disagree with how much prosecutorial attention was heaped on you, but "victim" is laying it on a bit thick. The new infographic is a nice touc…

Tom, you're still not getting it. Falsified evidence. Not just falsified, but clearly in the case record falsified. Anyone can be a victim of that. Happens every day.

Thanks for the backhanded compliment on the infographic; I wouldn't mind your following me around if you got your facts right.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#267

Post by joncrane »

vlozko wrote: post #179
marme wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was all ideas and plans. They built machines that performed significantly worse than standard tests. Their idea was one machine to run virtually all blood tests with a few drops of blood, their final machine only ran a handful of tests and was so inaccurate that only reason the FDA did not shut them down instantly is they used a loophole to claim it was not a testing machine but just in house lab equipment to assi…

I’ve heard about her not blinking. Also, she forces her voice to be at a lower octave than what her speaking voice normally is.

She had some strange mannerisms, right? And she had very wide eyes.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#268

Post by slantedview »

mhneu wrote: post #238

Excellent news for American society. “The Chickenshit Club” by Eisinger recently explained why the lack of criminal charges had emboldened white collar crime. Basically, individuals need to have the risk of criminal charges if they do something very egregious - they need to have skin in the game. The US Justice Dept has in the past two decades largely only been fining corporations. And so companies estimate risk and…

Today isn't a statement about white collar crime in general, only white collar crime that impacts wealthy people.

Compare with white collar crime that involves defrauding minority home buyers, for example. Not only did the perpetrators there not get prosecuted, one of them is now our Treasury Secretary [1].

1. https://theintercept.com/2017/01/03/treasury-nominee-steve-m...

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#269

Post by mchannon »

seibelj wrote: post #160
mchannon wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[site redacted] Eerily similar experience, down to the charges and the 11 counts. I don't disagree, but the average person on a jury just does what the lady in the skirtsuit tells them to do so they can get out of there. Most people you want on a jury throw away their summons with zero risk to the practice.

I looked into your case a bit and I agree your sentence is unduly harsh. You fraudently redeemed rewards for a bunch of fake people and make $100k, I don’t feel like this warranted everything that happened to you and your family. Sucks to be made an example of :/

I know you're trying to be nice, but I think you missed something.

"Mr. Dufresne, you killed your wife and her lover, I don't feel like you should have gone to Shawshank."

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#270

Post by emiliobumachar »

mhneu wrote: post #250
atombender wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This interview with John Carreyrou [1], the Wall Street Journal journalist who is largely responsible for exposing Theranos, goes into a lot of detail. It's long, so if you want a shorter answer, jump to the question "What technology did Theranos actually develop?": Basically there were three iterations of the technology. The first one used microfluidics, which are basically the repurposing of the micro-fabrication t…

There’s one other REALLY important reason why Holmes was able to raise money. Remember venture firms with blood test knowledge like Google V were turning her down. Holmes was close family friends with George Schultz, and that allowed her to do two things. First, get a bunch of military and government guys on the board. And second, sell to the military. That was Theranos’ real ace in the hole. Holmes knew top military…

That mid level DoD employee should get a bonus, a promotion, and a medal.
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