Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and former CEO of the defunct Theranos, was dogged with questions from reporters as she entered the San Jose Federal Courthouse yesterday. The subject of the questions: the lack of payment on her attorney’s fees.
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When asked, “Any response to claims that your attorneys haven’t been paid?” by one of the reporters waiting for her arrival, Holmes continued walking silently into the building to attend a hearing in her criminal case.
Holmes and former Theranos COO Ramesh Balwani were charged in June 2018 with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted, each faces up to 20 years in prison. Per that filed suit, Theranos had the “stated mission to revolutionize medical laboratory testing through allegedly innovative methods for drawing blood, testing blood, and interpreting the resulting patient date – all for the purpose of improving outcomes and lowering health care costs.” incorrectly claimed to have revolutionized blood testing by the use of very small volumes of blood, such as from a fingerprick.”
Also, the suit alleges that Holmes and Balwani, representing Theranos, “engaged in a scheme, plan, and artifice to defraud investors as to a material matter, and to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, by making materially false and misleading statements, and failing to disclose material facts with a duty to disclose.”
Last month, Cooley LLP attorneys filed a motion in Phoenix, Arizona to withdraw their representation of Holmes, stating “Given Ms. Holmes’s current financial situation, Cooley has no expectation that Ms. Holmes will ever pay it for its services as her counsel. Cooley therefore respectfully requests permission to withdraw as Counsel for Ms. Holmes.”
Reference:
- https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/04/elizabeth-holmes-dodges-questions-about-unpaid-legal-bills.html
- https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/04/elizabeth-holmes-lawyers-in-theranos-civil-case-file-motion-to-withdraw.html
- Court filing
