Elizabeth Holmes
Founder and CEO; defendant
Convicted in January 2022 of investor wire fraud and conspiracy. Sentenced in November 2022 to 135 months. Acquitted on patient-related wire-fraud counts.
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Mystery25
Scale70
Evidence80
Legal impact68
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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.
The Theranos docket names investors, scientists, and retail executives. The six below are the ones the trials and the 2015 investigation keep in frame.
Roles are taken from verdicts, the SEC complaint, CMS files, and the Journal’s contemporaneous reporting.
People
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani
President and COO; defendant
Romantic and business partner for years. Convicted in July 2022 on all counts tried, including patient-related fraud; sentenced to 155 months.
John Carreyrou
Wall Street Journal reporter
Author of the October 2015 investigation and the 2018 book Bad Blood. His sourcing from former employees opened the public enforcement path.
Edward J. Davila
U.S. District Judge
Northern District of California judge who presided over both criminal trials and imposed the 2022 sentences.
Jay Rosan
Walgreens executive counterpart
A Walgreens executive involved in the partnership that put collection sites in stores — the retail fact that made the technology claim testable.
Adam Rosendorff
Laboratory director (former)
A former lab director whose concerns about quality and the use of conventional analyzers became part of the Journal’s sourcing and later trial testimony.
Board names such as George Shultz and Henry Kissinger appear in the prestige story; they were not criminal defendants. David Boies’s legal campaign against early sources is part of the press history, not the verdict.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.