Everything looked so promising for Elizabeth Holmes. At age 19 she dropped out of the prestigious Stanford University to start her own company, Theranos.
Her goal was odd for a nineteen-year-old – revolutionizing the diagnostics industry (blood testing). Holmes raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of her business career, initially setting out to create a technology that could run comprehensive blood tests from a single prick of blood. In sum, that would render traditional blood testing inefficient and pointless. Based on that promise, investors handed her cash by the truckload, at one point pushing the companies implied valuation above $10 billion.
Due to her perceived accomplishments, former President Obama would name her a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship.
Everything seemed perfect. There was just one problem: it was all one big fraud. Not only did Theranos’ blood testing machine not have the ability to do what they claimed it did, any blood tests the company did provide were done with existing technology from other companies, not their device.
In a single day, on June 1st, 2016, Forbes Magazine revised Holmes’ net worth from $4.5 billion to zero. And now two years later, she’s finally facing some consequences for creating the largest corporate fraud since Enron, but it’s the kind of slap on the wrist you’d expect a member of the Clinton family to receive.
And speaking of the Clintons, she was politically connected with the Left. She’s participated in Clinton Foundation events, including one where she accompanied Bill Clinton on stage for a panel discussion.
In March of 2016, she held a fundraiser for Hillary’s presidential campaign. The event included a conversation with Chelsea Clinton, and the option to pay $2,700 get to go to a “host reception” with Chelsea. The fundraiser took place at Theranos’ headquarters, with the cheapest option to attend (“student”) costing $100. Most paid $500 or $1,000. (RELATED: BUSTED: Top Clinton Donor Caught Violating Federal Law AGAIN!).
For all the media coverage the implosion of Theranos is rightly attracting, none have mentioned her politics. Do you think that would be the same if she had raised money for Trump? Of course not.
