Money Crimes with Nicole Lapin - GREED: Elizabeth Holmes Pt. 2

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

By 2014, Elizabeth Holmes was the queen of Silicon Valley. Her company Theranos was valued at nine billion dollars -- all thanks to its revolutionary blood-testing technology. But there was no groundbreaking tech... and Elizabeth knew it. By the time the world found out the truth, Elizabeth had scammed her investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Money Crimes is a Crime House Original. For more true crime content, follow us on all social media, @crimehouse. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Crime House. Fake it till you make it. Generally speaking, that can be pretty good advice. It worked for many Silicon Valley greats, even people like Steve Jobs. In 2007, Jobs demoed the first iPhone live at the Macworld convention. Only, it wasn't actually live. At that point, the iPhone was barely more than an aluminum shell with a microchip.

It might have looked good, but it was barely functional. Which is why Jobs had his engineers create something called the Golden Path, a series of predetermined things he could do to make it look like everything worked. He even had it programmed to make it look like it was getting perfect cell service. See, Jobs knew he was getting close to getting the iPhone to work. In the meantime, he just needed people to get excited about it. The way Elizabeth Holmes saw it, she was doing the exact same thing with Theranos and their

new blood testing device. Only she never got past the faking it part. Which is one thing when you're working on a phone, but when you're lying about a so-called medical revolution, it can mean the difference between life and death. What is the difference between life and death? What is the difference between life and death? What is the difference between life and death? As the saying goes,

those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it. That's especially true when it comes to money. If you want to make the right decisions when it comes to managing your assets, you need to know what mistakes to avoid and how to spot a trap. This is Money Crimes, a Crime House original. I'm your host Nicole Lappin. Every Thursday I'll be telling you the story of a famous financial crime and giving you advice along the way about how to avoid becoming a victim

yourself. And for more true crime stories that all happened this week in history, check out Crime House The Show. Each episode covers multiple cases unified by the same theme, so every week you'll be getting something a little different. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following Money Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly matters. And for ad-free and early access to Money Crimes plus exciting bonus content, subscribe

to CrimeHouse Plus on Apple Podcasts. This is the second of two episodes on the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes. Last time I told you about Elizabeth's journey from college dropout to tech CEO. I filled you in on the first few years of Theranos and the toxic company culture Elizabeth helped create. Today I'll track Elizabeth's rise to stardom. From Forbes to Glamour, everyone wanted to hear from Silicon Valley's new darling.

But when it came out that Theranos' product was nothing more than a mirage, Elizabeth couldn't fake it any longer. After three years of lawsuits and investigations, it all came crashing down. And it was time for her to trade the C-suite for the cell block. So I've got some exciting news. Crime House Studios is launching a brand new original show called Killer Minds. Hosted by licensed forensic psychologist Dr. Tristan Ingalls and Crime House's Vanessa Richardson, each episode features a deep dive into the psychology of a notorious murderer,

from serial killers to cult leaders, deadly exes and spree killers. Killer Minds is a crime house original. New episodes drop every single Monday and Thursday. Follow wherever you get your podcasts. Follow wherever you get your podcasts. So picture this. It is 2009, Barack Obama is president, the jeans are skinny, the black eyed peas have us dancing to I Got a Feeling, and Apple releases the game-changing iPhone 3GS. The explosive success of the third-generation iPhone confirmed Steve Jobs' place as a tech icon. Up-and-coming CEOs like 25-year-old Elizabeth Holmes no longer just admired him, they worshipped him.

At some point after starting Thernos six years earlier, Elizabeth had even started dressing like Steve Jobs in her black turtlenecks with matching slacks. Maybe she figured if she looked the part of a successful CEO, she'd become one herself. From the outside, it certainly looked like she was heading in the right direction. Theranos was one of Silicon Valley's hottest commodities. By 2009, Elizabeth had been in talks with several major pharmaceutical companies. She promised them fast and easy in-house blood testing with her machine, the Edison.

But unlike her investors, these companies wouldn't be won over by a moving speech and a fancy demonstration. Before any of them were willing to fork over the big bucks, they required a real trial test to make sure the tech was solid. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, it wasn't. At least not to the degree she liked to pretend it was. Now to refresh your memory, the Edison was a black box meant to automate the blood testing steps usually performed

by humans. At the size of a home printer, Elizabeth envisioned a future where the Edison was in every doctor's office, maybe even in some people's homes. But there were a lot of problems behind the Edison's impressive exterior. For one thing, the Edison was extremely temperature-sensitive. If it got too hot or too cold, it could throw off the results. Then there was the issue of sample volume. Elizabeth had compromised on a lot of features she originally wanted in the device. But she refused to lose the idea of testing a single

drop of blood. Probably because it was the linchpin of all of her sales pitches. Elizabeth promised the end of needles and blood draws. All her tests would be done with a simple prick of the finger. Problem was, one drop wasn't nearly enough liquid for most machines to work with, including the Edison. So her team diluted the samples with a saline solution ahead of time.

But that interfered with the chemistry, which in turn made the results inaccurate. None of those issues slowed Elizabeth down though. She continued to promise investors the world. And she never once mentioned that all those pharma partnerships she bragged about hadn't been put into writing yet. In reality, Theranos was spreading fast and earning almost nothing. Nearly all of their money had come from fundraising.

But between trying to create a working product and spending millions on an automated packaging line to pump out devices, that capital was disappearing quick. That's when Elizabeth decided to bring on an old friend of hers, Ramesh Sunny Balwani. Elizabeth and Sunny first met through the Stanford-Mandarin program in 2002 during her senior year of high school. The program was technically for college students, so they were both outliers. But at 37, Sunny was by far the oldest participant. Despite their age gap, the two struck up an unlikely friendship and kept in touch even after the program ended.

Sunny started out as a software engineer and in 1999 joined a startup as their president and chief technology officer. Just months later, the company sold for hundreds of millions. Since he happened to be the second highest ranking employee at the time, Sunny made $40 million. Elizabeth was very impressed and she wanted his help. As she was first getting Theranos off the ground, she turned to Sunny for advice and guidance. But over the years, their relationship evolved into something more than mentor and

mentee. At some point, they started dating, and in 2005, they moved in together. When Elizabeth hired him at Theranos four years later, Sonny's official title was executive vice chairman. Which sounds important, but doesn't exactly say anything about what he was doing at the company. And Sonny used that ambiguity to his advantage. He involved himself in almost every aspect of the business. Elizabeth might have admired his proactive approach, but she was pretty much the only

one. Like his prized Lamborghini, Sunny was showy and over the top. He even had a vanity blade that said Vidi Vici, as in the Julius Caesar quote, Veni Vidi Vici, or I came, I saw, I conquered. Which perfectly summed up his management style. He was known for barking orders and pressuring employees, and he wasn't above getting into public screaming matches with anyone who dared to stand up to him. Now, Theranos' company culture had never been healthy, per se. But once Sunny was in the fold, things only got worse.

Nobody could figure out what Elizabeth saw in him, personally or professionally. But some had a hunch that it was Sunny's wallet she was after. Around the same time Sunny was hired, he personally guaranteed Theranos a $12 million loan. It's not clear whether anyone else at Theranos knew about it, but Sunny's contribution was about the only thing keeping the lights on at that point. That's because the Big Pharma route wasn't paying off fast enough. In fact, they'd already lost one potential contract with Pfizer.

After a lackluster trial with the Theranos 1.0 machine, Pfizer decided to walk away from Theranos entirely in early 2009. With the ongoing technical issues, it wouldn't be long before others followed suit. So Elizabeth needed a new plan and fast. One of her fundamental goals was to make Theranos a household name like Apple. She dreamed of the Edison being as widespread as the iPhone.

Of course, there were many more steps she needed to take before that could happen. But Elizabeth remained outwardly optimistic about the process. She figured if she could just get the Edison in front of people, they'd swoon. One glance at the product and the money would start rolling in. But the Edison wasn't the iPhone, and Elizabeth wasn't Steve Jobs. The only thing she really had in common with him was her wardrobe. And it was just a matter of time until the rest of Silicon Valley realized it too. Hey everyone, it's Nicole. With an exciting update, Crime House Studios is launching a new original show called Killer

Minds. Hosted by licensed forensic psychologist Dr. Tristan Engels and Crime House's Vanessa Richardson, each episode of Killer Minds features a deep dive into the psychology of a notorious murderer. From infamous serial killers to ruthless cult leaders, deadly exes, and terrifying spree killers. Along with Vanessa's immersive storytelling full of high stakes, twists, and turns, Dr. Ingalls will be providing expert analysis of the people involved. Not just how they killed, but why.

Killer Minds is a Crime House Studios original. New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday. Follow wherever you get your podcasts. By late 2009, 25-year-old Elizabeth Holmes was still struggling to find a revenue stream for her company. Even though Theranos was valued in the hundreds of millions, the company wasn't actually making any money yet. Elizabeth realized that working with Big Pharma was a lot more challenging than expected. The industry had a lot of requirements, and they asked a lot of questions.

Elizabeth wanted partners who were more like her investors, people who were less knowledgeable about science and more willing to take her word for, well, everything. So in 2010, Theranos reached out to retail pharmacies who might be more focused on business than medicine. They started with Walgreens. With 7,500 stores around the country, a partnership with them seemed like the logical next step. And the execs at Walgreens were eager to have Sonny and Elizabeth present to them at the company's headquarters

in Illinois. Pitching had always been 26-year-old Elizabeth's strong suit. She was like a pastor at the pulpit, sharing the gospel of Theranos. And Walgreens had the opportunity to be part of their mission to save lives and revolutionize healthcare. It seems her message resonated with Dr. J. Rosen, aka Dr. J., a member of Walgreens' Health Innovations team. As you might suspect from the name, this new team was focused on keeping the company on

the cutting edge of health and wellness. Dr. J. immediately bought into Elizabeth's vision. Access to the Edison meant they'd basically be operating their own testing labs in store. Commercial labs like Quest Diagnostics made billions of dollars a year. Teaming up with Theranos meant Walgreens could get in on that action. When Dr. J brought the proposal to Walgreens' CFO, Wade Mickelon, he also became an instant believer. Mickelon's excitement only grew when Elizabeth hit him with the numbers, a projected $2 billion in annual revenue. Mickelon was so thrilled, he personally

negotiated the contract with Elizabeth. It took some time, but by August of 2010, Walgreens agreed to pre-purchase $50 million worth of Theranos equipment. That was in addition to giving the company a $25 million loan. To their credit, Walgreens sent a consultant to evaluate Theranos' lab and check out the technology. Though, not until after they had already signed the contracts. So when the consultant got there, Elizabeth flat out refused to let him in. It made the consultant extremely suspicious.

But Dr. J and other Walgreens execs at the meeting were too enthralled with Elizabeth to pull out. They figured she had her reasons. Landing a partnership like Walgreens was huge. And yet Elizabeth didn't seem satisfied. So at the same time she was wooing Walgreens, she was also in talks with grocery store giant Safeway. It just so happened that Safeway CEO Steve Byrd was on a major health kick at the time. Not just for himself, but for his employees too.

Which made him extremely receptive to Elizabeth's promises. Not only was she offering access to an incredible tool, one that could save his company a lot in medical costs, but Elizabeth wanted to carve out customized spaces for her wellness centers in every Safeway location. It was a proposition so tantalizing that Byrd loaned the company $30 million right off the bat and footed the bill for the massive renovations those wellness centers required. With two major retailers chomping at the bit, Elizabeth had to put her machine where her mouth was.

Never one to shy away from a bold claim, she told Walgreens and Safeway the Edison could perform 95% of all common blood tests. Except it was a lie. The Edison could only perform tests that measured for specific substances in blood, like vitamin D. It couldn't run the tests required for, say, checking cholesterol or blood sugar, which used completely different techniques. To do anything else, they'd need a different machine entirely.

So in November of 2010, she hired two new engineers to build it. Even though it didn't exist yet, Elizabeth already had a catchy name for this new machine, the mini lab. And like each of its predecessors, it was a massive engineering challenge. She didn't want it to be much bigger than the Edison, but they needed to add three new components to get it operational. While the engineers worked to make her vision a reality, Elizabeth had to stall Walgreens and Safeway without losing them entirely. That turned out to be pretty easy. Both companies were more afraid of losing out on the opportunity than holding Elizabeth to her deadlines.

Which is how two years passed before there was any sort of progress. By early 2012, she finally let things move forward with Safeway. 28-year-old Elizabeth agreed to provide blood testing at their employee clinic located on their corporate campus in Pleasanton, California. It was meant to be a trial run of the in-store wellness centers. Only the mini-lab was nowhere to be seen. See, the mini-lab was still just a prototype by the time the Safeway Employee Clinic was up and running.

There still weren't any fully functioning devices that could be sent out to stores. And that might have been due to the extremely toxic environment that had been festering over at Theranos. By that point, Theranos was plagued with secrecy and paranoia. Many entrepreneurs are protective of their ideas, but Elizabeth took that to an extreme. She wasn't just cautious of outsiders. Her distrust extended to her own employees. And Sunny only fueled that fire. Communication at Theranos was highly monitored, especially between the research and development teams. Chemists and engineers weren't allowed to tell each other what they were working on.

Which meant two crucial teams had no idea what the other was doing. Which is probably part of the reason Theranos was so behind on everything. So without a fully functioning device, Elizabeth was forced to stock the Safeway Clinic with commercially available machines, the kind that are used in hospitals and doctors' offices and operated by technicians. You know, the exact products Elizabeth was trying to replace with her own devices. Even then, the personnel operating those machines were so inexperienced and poorly trained, the results couldn't be trusted.

It was a total disaster. And yet Elizabeth kept moving forward. Despite the disaster with Safeway, Elizabeth got Walgreens to agree to a new, even more expensive agreement in June of 2012. Elizabeth agreed to launch by February of 2013 in exchange for $100 million innovation fee plus $40 million in convertible notes. Convertible notes are a pretty common investment tool. They basically allow investors to choose

between getting their money back with interest or shares of the company. By accepting these terms, Walgreens stepped out of the realm of strategic partner and became known as what's called a strategic investor. These tend to be established companies looking to put their money into younger ones. It's usually a win-win scenario. The startup gets funding and the strategic investor gets access to their innovation. As the startup grows and their shares become more valuable, the strategic investor makes

even more money. Basically, Walgreens was saying that they were in it for the long haul. They saw this partnership as a ticket to future greatness, which was the kind of win Elizabeth needed because she was losing sway with Steve Byrd over at Safeway. He had held up their part of the bargain to put 350 million into building the wellness centers

Elizabeth asked for. But in return, all he was getting was complaints from the employee clinic. Theranos was supposed to be faster than the other labs, and yet employees had to wait days, sometimes weeks, to get their results. When those results finally did come through, they tended to be… off. One senior executive got a report that indicated he might have prostate cancer. He got a second opinion, and his numbers came back completely normal. Not exactly the kind of information you'd want to miss the mark on.

However, the Theranos partnership was Bird's pet project, and he wasn't willing to admit he'd gotten it wrong. But Safeway's board of directors was losing faith in their CEO. And in January of 2013, the company announced his imminent retirement. Contractually, the deal wasn't over yet. But with her main contact stepping down, Elizabeth put the Safeway partnership on the back burner. She handed the reins over to Sunny and turned her focus entirely on Walgreens. But the mini-lab wasn't any closer to being ready.

The February 2013 deadline for the wellness centers came and went. Elizabeth managed to buy herself a little more time, but she was only delaying the inevitable. And it wouldn't be long until the rest of the world realized, Theranos was hiding a dark secret. How far would you go in your pursuit of the American dream? Would you put in the work? 911, what's your emergency? Would you take a big risk? What's the problem? What's the problem? Would you cheat?

Would you lie? Were they shot? Would you kill? My mom and dad. My mom and my dad. I'm Jeremy Schwartz, and I'll be taking you inside the minds of some of our most notorious felons and outlaws, exploring the dark side to the American dream. You'll meet the picture-perfect brothers who teamed up to kill their parents, the thief

who stole babies and ruined countless lives, the crypto king who siphoned off billions in the name of saving the world, and plenty more. From assassins to gangsters to killers and con artists, whatever the case, whoever the For the first 10 years of its existence, Theranos was one of the hottest companies in Silicon Valley. But that all changed in 2013 when 29-year-old CEO Elizabeth Holmes secured a partnership with Walgreens. Her products were nowhere ready to be used in real-life clinical settings. And yet, she was about to use them

on patients in Walgreens stores. But Elizabeth decided to let others on her team deal with that problem. Meanwhile, her focus was on branding. For that, she went straight to the top and hired the firm that handled Apple's strategy, Shia Day. The top ofof-the-line agency came with a $6 million annual price tag, which was a serious drain on Theranos's already-depleted coffers.

But Elizabeth was going for a high-end aesthetic, one no one else could deliver, but Shia Day did. They gave Elizabeth the full Steve Jobs experience. She had her portrait taken by Martin Shuler, who'd shot everyone from Oprah to Hillary Clinton. The company also hired Academy Award-winning documentarian Errol Morris to shoot a series of commercials. But none of it would pay off if the launch didn't actually happen. So Elizabeth took even more drastic measures. Instead of trying to find a breakthrough, she turned to corporate espionage. Elizabeth sent one of her top engineers to hack the commercial machines in the Walgreens lab.

These machines usually needed a bunch of blood to complete their tests. So the engineer created a workaround to get those machines to run on Theranos-sized micro-samples. Again, the science is pretty complicated here, but the end result was this. They'd still be able to test tiny samples in store and pretend like they were using Theranos machines to do it. But using someone else's intellectual property. And when the Walgreens partnership finally launched in September of 2013, she used it as an opportunity to start another round of fundraising. used it as an opportunity to start another round of fundraising. Claiming Theranos had a valuation of $6 billion, Elizabeth tried to lure in more investors,

saying she had contracts with pharmaceutical companies, insurance agencies, and government agencies. She was careful not to specify whether the contracts were current or if the partnerships were ongoing. For instance, even though their partnership with Pfizer had ended back in 2009, Elizabeth still included them on her list. But while her pharma deals might have been exaggerated, Elizabeth did have something else going for her.

Her star-studded board of directors. By 2014, it included the likes of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and four-star Marine Corps General James Mattis. They were both incredibly accomplished, but none of them really had any business advising a biotech company. The main purpose of a board of directors, by the way, is to make sure the company is following any and all applicable laws and regulations. So a good board should be stacked with experts in the industry and in related fields. Famous names are always a plus, but that should be a secondary consideration.

But at Theranos, Elizabeth's priorities were reversed. All she cared about was attracting big, flashy names. But that might have been by design. Because Elizabeth didn't want their advice, she wanted their connections. Before long, the money was flowing faster than ever. In February of 2014, a firm called Partner Fund Management gave Theranos $96 million. When other power players saw that, they decided it was time to get in the Theranos game too. By June of 2014, Elizabeth had raised $400 million from the likes of the Waltons, the

DeVos family, and Rupert Murdoch. With that, Theranos' valuation jumped to a staggering $9 billion. Because she still owned half the company, Elizabeth herself was worth $4.5 billion. On paper anyway. She was barely 30 years old and touted as the world's youngest female self-made billionaire. It was exactly the kind of narrative that made headlines. Her first cover story went to Fortune magazine in June of 2014. The feature catapulted Elizabeth to the level of fame she'd only ever dreamed of. But as Elizabeth was gaining huge numbers of adoring fans, there were plenty of folks

who were skeptical. She was giving interview after interview, but if you really listened, she wasn't actually saying much about Theranos. When asked about any specifics, she'd invoke the protection of trade secrets, the business equivalent of pleading the fifth. And a lot of what she was saying wasn't even true. For instance, Elizabeth bragged that Theranos had eliminated human error by automating the entire testing process. But they hadn't even done that with the Edison, let alone the mini-lab. When they did manage to process a patient's sample, the results were completely unreliable. But instead of admitting it just didn't work, Elizabeth told her techs to manipulate

the data to make it look like it did. And there was a very steep price for anyone who dared to reveal the truth. Employees at Theranos were required to sign a super strict NDA. To back that up, Elizabeth hired a big wig lawyer who could bury pretty much anyone in career-ending litigation. But by 2015, a guy named Adam Rosendorf was willing to take his chances. As the head of the company's lab, he'd stood by while Elizabeth breezed over all sorts of ethics and regulations.

But a few months earlier, Adam had had enough and left Theranos, and he wasn't done with Elizabeth yet. When Wall Street Journal reporter John Kari Rue approached him about an interview, Adam was happy to tell him what was really happening at Theranos. With the promise of anonymity, Adam spoke to Kari RRu and told him everything.

And because Adam had run the lab, he had a mountain of evidence to back up his claims. Although Adam Rosendorff was a great source, Kari-Ru knew he needed others to back up his claims. Eventually, he found more people willing to come forward, including Tyler Schultz, who'd worked under him. Tyler also just happened to be the grandson of George Schultz, another former Secretary of State and current member of Theranos' board. Carrie Rue even reached out to Elizabeth herself with requests for an interview or even just

a comment on everything he'd been told. After months of getting denied, he was finally granted a meeting in June of 2015. But not with 31-year-old Elizabeth. The group that showed up to the Wall Street Journal offices was mostly lawyers who did all the answering, if you'd even call it that. They spoke vaguely, just like Elizabeth did in her interviews. The only thing Carey Roo got out of it was a strong feeling he was on the right track.

The investigation continued until October 15th of 2015, when Carey Roo's bombshell expose was finally published. Most people would lay low after being so publicly accused of fraud. But Elizabeth wasn't most people. Not only did she fight back, she did so on a stage at the journal's own conference, WSJD Live, just days later. Elizabeth did everything she could to cast down on Carrie Rue, his sources, and the Wall Street Journal itself.

But like most things Elizabeth said, just because she wanted it to be true, didn't mean it was. In late October of 2015, about a week after the article dropped, the Walgreens partnership started to fall apart. By this point, they'd opened Theranos Wellness Centers in 40 locations in Arizona and one in Palo Alto, California. On the heels of the article, they hadn't terminated the partnership yet, but things were definitely on pause. Especially since CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, opened an investigation

into Theranos a couple weeks later, in November of 2015. They inspected Theranos' labs and found the company's practices posed a threat to patient health and safety. CMS gave them 10 days to come up with a plan to fix their issues. That was in January of 2016. By March, Theranos still hadn't gotten up to snuff. Not only was their business license in jeopardy, but Elizabeth and Sunny were at the risk of being banned from owning or operating a lab for two years. With the report out there, 32-year-old Elizabeth couldn't deny the issues at Theranos any

longer. So, she tried to deny knowing about them instead. And to make it seem believable, Elizabeth was ready to throw anyone under the bus. That person ended up being her boyfriend, Sonny Balwani. The official story was that he retired, but no matter how they tried to spin it, losing the number 2 at your company in the middle of a scandal doesn't look great. The truth was, Sonny didn't leave voluntarily, Elizabeth had fired him. Unsurprisingly, their romantic relationship ended around this time too. With Sunny gone and her personal and professional lives crumbling, it seemed like Elizabeth

had hit rock bottom. But then, Walgreens officially ended their partnership in June of 2016. Less than a month after that, the axe fell and CMS followed through on their threats. Theranos had to close its labs, laying off 340 employees in the process. By November of 2016, the lawsuits started. Walgreens was the first in line looking to reclaim their $140 million. Next was the state of Arizona on behalf of the patients who had gotten blood work from Theranos.

That case was settled when Elizabeth agreed to pay over $4.5 million into a reimbursement fund. And things just a reimbursement fund. And things just got worse from there. In June of 2018, the US government brought criminal fraud charges against Elizabeth and Sunny. 5 months later, Theranos officially closed up shop for good. But Elizabeth wasn't going to go quietly. Her hearing was delayed for years, first by pre-trial motions, then by the COVID pandemic,

and then by a pregnancy. Elizabeth's baby was due in July of 2021 when her trial was supposed to begin. Incredibly, while she was being investigated, sued, and publicly discredited, she'd managed to find love with Billy Evans, heir to the Evans Hotel fortune. The court decided to give her a month to recover from childbirth. So in August of 2021, at 37 years old, Elizabeth finally faced the music. years old, Elizabeth finally faced the music. The trial lasted 15 weeks. In the end, the evidence was too much for her defense to overcome. In January of 2022, Elizabeth was found guilty of defrauding her investors and later that year was sentenced to 11 years behind bars. Sonny was convicted that July of fraud against investors and

patients. He was sentenced to almost 13 years. As for Elizabeth, she's currently serving her sentence at the minimum security federal prison Camp Bryan in Texas. And she's already managed to get it reduced by two years. So it won't be long before Elizabeth Holmes is a free woman once again. The question is, when she does get out, what will be her next move? Unlike some of the other folks we've covered on this show, Elizabeth didn't necessarily set out to lie and cheat her way to the top. Yes, she wanted to make money, but she also seemed to want to make the world

a better place. But somewhere along the way, her priorities shifted. Theranos wasn't about making healthcare more accessible, it was about Elizabeth's And people saw her for what she really was. A liar. Thank you so much for listening. I'm your host Nicole Lapin. Money Crimes is a Crime House original. Join me every Thursday for a new episode. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard here today, reach out on social media, at Crime House on TikTok

and on Instagram. And don't forget to rate, review, and follow Money Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And for ad-free and early access to Money Crimes plus exciting bonus content, subscribe to CrimeHouse Plus on Apple Podcasts. Money Crimes is hosted by me, Nicole Lapin, and is a CrimeHouse original powered by PAVE Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Money Crimes team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex

Benedon, Natalie Persovsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Yelena Waugh, Michael Langsor, and Joanna Powell. Thank you so much for listening. What drives a person to murder? Find out from a licensed forensic psychologist on Hiller Minds, a Crime House original podcast. New episodes drop every single Monday and Thursday. Follow wherever you get your podcasts.