The Theranos investigation in public view begins with journalism, then laboratory regulation, then securities and criminal process.
This page records those steps. It does not explain how to falsify a validation study or how to present a device that is not ready.
Agencies
- Wall Street Journal (press) — Published the October 2015 investigation that made the device-versus-menu gap a public fact and named sources regulators could follow.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — Inspected the CLIA laboratory, issued deficiency findings, and imposed 2016 sanctions that shut the operating story down.
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — Filed March 2018 civil fraud charges against Holmes and Balwani over investor representations.
- U.S. Attorney, Northern District of California — Brought the criminal wire-fraud case tried in San Jose in 2021–2022.
What followed
- Source interviews
Journal reporters interviewed former scientists and lab staff and compared their accounts with the public testing menu.
- Publication
The 15 October 2015 article forced Theranos into public rebuttal and drew CMS and state attention to the Newark lab.
- CLIA inspection
Surveyors reviewed quality-control records and proficiency testing; findings led to sanctions and voided results.
- Civil securities case
The SEC charged fraud in 2018; Holmes settled those civil claims without admitting or denying the complaint’s allegations, on terms in the decree.
- Indictment and discovery
Prosecutors obtained emails, texts, and investor materials and split the two defendants for trial.
- Two jury trials
Holmes’s case ended 3 January 2022; Balwani’s ended in July 2022. Sentencing hearings closed the trial court year.
Turning points
- The first Journal article — Before 15 October 2015 the company still controlled the public narrative. After it, every partner and regulator had a documentary hook.
- CMS sanctions (2016) — A health-regulator ban is harder to spin than a magazine dispute. The retail offering could not continue as before.
- Split verdicts (2022) — Holmes’s acquittals on patient counts and Balwani’s convictions on them are the legal nuance that later summaries keep dropping.
After-the-fact investigators tested claims against laboratory records and investor decks. The science story ended when those records could not support the pitch.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.