Carreyrou series (2015– )
report
The Journal articles collected former-employee accounts and compared the public menu with laboratory practice. They are the first public evidence file, later corroborated in court.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Notoriety88
Mystery25
Scale70
Evidence80
Legal impact68
Culture86
LessMore
Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
What was Theranos supposed to do?
The company claimed its devices could run a broad menu of clinical laboratory tests from a finger-stick or other small sample, faster and cheaper than a conventional venous draw sent to a central lab.
When did the public case break?
The Wall Street Journal published John Carreyrou’s first major investigation on 15 October 2015. CMS sanctions, SEC charges (2018), and criminal trials followed.
What was Elizabeth Holmes convicted of?
On 3 January 2022 a Northern District of California jury convicted her of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud involving investors. She was acquitted on several other counts, including patient-related wire-fraud counts.
What sentence did she receive?
Judge Edward J. Davila sentenced Holmes on 18 November 2022 to 135 months (11 years and 3 months) in federal prison, plus supervised release and restitution to be determined in the judgment papers.
What happened to Sunny Balwani?
Ramesh Balwani was convicted in July 2022 on all twelve counts he faced, including investor and patient-related fraud, and was sentenced in December 2022 to 155 months.
Did patients receive inaccurate results?
CMS findings and trial evidence included inaccurate or unreliable results from the Newark lab. Holmes was not convicted on the patient-fraud counts; Balwani was. Civil and regulatory files address laboratory quality separately from those verdicts.
Juries saw investor decks, emails, text messages, and laboratory validation data. Regulators had already written inspection findings.
The items below are the public pillars. They describe what was shown after the fact, not how to design a misleading test menu.
Exhibits
CMS Form 2567 and sanctions
audit
Survey findings on the Newark laboratory documented quality failures and supported sanctions that voided results and barred Holmes from lab ownership for a period.
Investor presentations
exhibit
Decks and meetings that claimed pharmaceutical validation, military use, and device capability. The Holmes jury treated key claims as false statements in a scheme to obtain money.
Emails and texts
document
Messages among Holmes, Balwani, and employees about proficiency testing, third-party analyzers, and what partners were told. Heavily used at both trials.
Holmes verdict form (2022)
judgment
The January 2022 form records convictions on four investor-related counts and acquittals on others — the precise legal result often misstated in headlines.
Balwani verdict (2022)
judgment
The July 2022 sweep of convictions, including patient-related counts, is the contrasting jury finding in the same courthouse.
How strong is the record?
Investor-fraud record90
Two juries and the SEC file align on false investor representations.
Laboratory quality file85
CMS papers are specific; they are regulatory findings, not the Holmes patient-count verdict.
Patient-count verdicts60
Split: Holmes acquitted on those counts; Balwani convicted. Do not collapse the two.
Device engineering detail70
Trial evidence showed limits of Edison; some technical minutiae remain in sealed or dense exhibits.
The evidence problem in Theranos is keeping investor verdicts, patient verdicts, and CMS findings on three separate lines.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.