One of Silicon Valley’s most infamous entrepreneurs, Elizabeth Holmes, is scheduled to stand trial on Aug. 31 to defend accusations that she used her biotech startup, Theranos, to commit criminal fraud.
Holmes, 37, once proclaimed the youngest female self-made billionaire — and featured in Yahoo Finance’s new documentary “Valley of Hype,” streaming on Yahoo Finance starting Aug. 30 — faces federal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud tied to the collapse of the blood-testing company.
Jury selection is slated to begin Aug. 31, and opening statements are scheduled for Sept. 8. A central question at trial will be whether Holmes and her former romantic partner and co-defendant, ex-Theranos president and COO, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, used Theranos to intentionally defraud private investors into backing the venture, and intentionally defraud patients into purchasing unreliable blood tests.
Between 2013 and 2015, Theranos raised more than $700 million from private investors, and accepted payments from patients who purchased its blood tests offered in certain Walgreens (WBA) stores in Arizona and California.
