Theranos Founder Holmes, Ex-President Charged With Fraud

  • U.S. grand jury indicts principals after earlier SEC case
  • Holmes, Balwani accused of misrepresenting their technology

Elizabeth Holmes

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes, who reigned briefly as the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire over her promise to revolutionize blood testing, was criminally charged with defrauding investors along with the company’s former president.

The indictment announced Friday by the U.S. Attorney in San Francisco alleging wire fraud follows claims by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Theranos, Holmes and the company’s ex-president, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, lied about their technology while raising more than $700 million to build the medical-testing startup.