Holmes‘ defense attorney argued „a failed business does not make a CEO a criminal.“
Prosecutors called Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes a liar and a cheat on Wednesday while her attorneys argued that the company’s failure was not a crime. „Out of time, out of money, Elizabeth Holmes decided to lie,“ Robert Leach, an assistant U.S. attorney, said while laying out the case that Theranos ran out of cash in 2009 and knowingly misled investors to keep the company afloat. Prosecutors said Holmes was not only the face of Theranos, the blood testing start-up she founded, but she also oversaw everything about the company, „dazzling“ investors like Walgreens and Safeway with false claims. „She owned it, she controlled it, the buck stopped with her,“ Leach said. „And as you’ll hear from insiders, she was not an absentee CEO, she was there all the time. She sweated the details. She was in charge.“ The long-anticipated opening arguments were heard during a five-hour hearing. Holmes arrived to court alongside her partner Billy Evans, her mother Noel Holmes and Evans‘ father William Evans. She wore a gray skirt suit with a cream colored blouse and a light blue face mask. It was a very different image than her signature black turtleneck during her heyday at Theranos. The crowd outside was the largest since the criminal trial began last Tuesday. Among the spectators were three women with blonde hair who mimicked Holmes‘ signature look wearing all black with their hair pulled back in a bun. They sat next to Holmes‘ family in the courtroom. Inside the courthouse before opening statements, Holmes was spotted embracing her mother. During the hearing, she sat between her attorneys and occasionally glanced back at her family which was seated directly behind her.
