Corporate Criticism: Memes Responding To Theranos Fraud Defenses
Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of the health technology company Theranos, has returned to the spotlight years after fraud accusations.
Image credits: Michael Kovac/Getty Images
On September 7, a trailer for a secret documentary, titled You Can See Everything, was released online, reviving conversation around her controversial rise and downfall in the business world.
Image credits: A24
Despite emerging as one of the most promising female entrepreneurs in the early 2000s, Holmes’ company faced multiple scandals that sparked controversy, an award-winning drama series, a new documentary, and finally a slew of scathing but humorous memes.
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Amid renewed interest in the Theranos founder’s conviction on fraud charges, one X user defended the 42-year-old, pointing to Holmes’ 2021 admission of being as*aul*ed during her time at Stanford.
“Honestly kind of gross to paint a woman who was ra*ed and groomed as some sort of liar or sociopath when she clearly created Theranos as a trauma response,” they wrote.
The defense drew a wide variety of reactions from other users, renewing interest in Holmes’ professional background and personal life.
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Holmes, a Stanford dropout, launched the startup in 2003 as Real-Time Cures, then renamed it Theranos. In December 2004, Holmes raised $6 million to revolutionize b***d-testing technology.
By 2010, the company had more than $92 million in venture capital. In 2014, Forbes recognized Holmes as the world's youngest self-made female billionaire. At the same time, Theranos was valued at $9 billion and had $400 million in venture capital.
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During this time, she also became famous for styling herself after Apple founder Steve Jobs and using an artificial baritone voice, which critics later claimed was a ploy to project authority. However, her rise was short-lived as Theranos soon faced several legal issues.
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The company took a major hit in March 2018 when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Holmes and Theranos's former president, Ramesh Balwani, with fraud.
The duo was accused of raising more than $700 million from investors while advertising a false product. The lawsuit was settled later that month after Holmes surrendered voting control of Theranos and returned 18.9 million shares.
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By then, Theranos had been reduced to fewer than two dozen employees after mass layoffs between 2016 and 2017. In June, prosecutors indicted Holmes and Balwani on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The company laid off the remaining employees in August 2018. On September 5, 2018, the company announced it would be formally dissolved.
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Holmes maintained a low profile during her trial but made headlines in early 2022. In January, Holmes was found guilty on multiple counts and awaited sentencing while remaining free on $500,000 bail.
Later in March, a series based on her life premiered on Hulu with Amanda Seyfried portraying a fictionalized version of her. Seyfried later won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance.
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In November 2022, Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in federal prison. Although her appeal against the sentence was rejected, her prison time was later reduced by 12 months under revised federal sentencing guidelines.
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She began serving her sentence on May 30, 2023, and is currently being held at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) in Bryan, Texas. Before her incarceration, Holmes worked on a documentary directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim.
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