NY Times reporter and bestselling author of Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. Ex-
@WSJ
. Send story tips to john.carreyrou
@nytimes
.com
So... I’ve got some news... In late August, the criminal trial of Elizabeth Holmes will begin and I’ll be there to cover it... with a new podcast, Bad Blood: The Final Chapter.
This is a terrible look for
@WSJ
. Let’s see how it feels when another news organization front runs a sensitive story it’s working on with a preemptive comment from the story subject.
Journalistic high-mindedness from
@benyt
, the guy who pubbed the Trump dossier without fact-checking a shred of it and who later refused to retract the Trump-instructed-Cohen-to-lie-to-Congress story. Rich with irony and quite brazen.
“She was going to herald a revolution in medical treatment in this country.”
From Academy Award-winning director
@alexgibneyfilm
,
#TheInventor
: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley premieres March 18 at 9PM on
@HBO
.
Tyler Shultz’s father gave an impromptu speech when the judge asked whether any victims wanted to speak. It was emotional. Holmes spoke too. She cried.
The US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit denied Elizabeth Holmes's last-ditch motion to remain free pending her appeal, and Judge Davila separately ruled that Holmes and Balwani are on the hook for $452 million in restitution.
So, I've been fielding queries from reporters asking me to confirm that former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff, who is currently testifying at Elizabeth Holmes's trial, was my source. I can now confirm it. Alan Beam = Adam Rosendorff.
Judge Davila made clear that future deterrence was a big part of his rationale for the sentence. He called the Theranos fraud “a cautionary tale” for Silicon Valley.
I'll add this: Adam was my first and most important source. Without him, I wouldn't have been able to break the Theranos story. Hats off to his courage and integrity. He's one of the real heroes of this story.
The government is asking Judge Davila to sentence Elizabeth Holmes to 15 years in prison. Her attorneys are arguing for no time, or at worse 18 months.
While we wait for Elizabeth Holmes’s trial, I highly recommend Tyler Shultz’s first-person account of his experience as a whistleblower. It’s brimming with new details even I didn’t know. Check it out! You won’t regret it.
Just learned of a priceless anecdote (so too late to include it in the book): At a company party, Theranos employees played a video game modeled after Atari's Space Invaders: The gun was the miniLab, the bullets the nanotainers and the invader being shot at: Yours Truly!
The parents of Tyler Shultz also provided a victim impact statement. It says Holmes took a « wrecking ball » to their family. « The most heart breaking of all is to hear your son describe that he contemplated suicide because he felt abandoned, isolated, threatened and hopeless »
The difference between SBF’s and Elizabeth Holmes’s treatment is striking. He was marched into court with ankle shackles today and will be under house arrest with a bracelet monitor. Holmes could move about as she pleased and was never cuffed.
This also illustrates my earlier point about the difference in treatment between SBF and Holmes. He’s under house arrest with a bracelet monitor while she’s free as a bird post conviction and sentencing.
I’ll bet a nickel that Judge Davilla doesn’t allow
@JohnCarreyrou
in courtroom since he is on the witness list, which would be a shame, given that his reporting on this is the best I’ve seen.
Business Insider got its hands on a video showing Theranos employees shooting at my head in their home-made version of Space Invaders. You can watch it here:
The first story I ever read in
@WSJ
was Tony Horwitz’s exposé on the poultry plant he embedded himself in for several months. One of the best pieces I’ve read in the paper to this day.
The 4 guilty counts are all investor counts. The investor conspiracy count and the counts relating to the hedge fund PFM, the ex Cravath attorney Mosley and the DeVos family.
In fact, I can’t think of two more damaging instances of what
@benyt
calls “resistance journalism” than those two
@BuzzFeedNews
screw-ups, which happened on his watch.
As we predicted in Episode 1 of the podcast: Holmes is going to use the Svengali defense and try to shift all the blame to Sunny by alleging that he held her in his psychological grip.
So, as we waited quietly to enter the courtroom, Tyler Shultz’s parents stood right in front of me, the Holmes clan was to my right and Balwani’s lawyer was right behind me…
"The next year, when Mr. Carreyrou was investigating Theranos’s claims for The Journal, Ms. Holmes embraced Silicon Valley’s favorite form of deflection: Label anyone who asks hard questions a hater."
We’ve got a cool episode of the podcast coming your way tomorrow. It contains never-before-heard footage of Holmes’s interviews with
@kenauletta
and my confrontation with David Boies and Heather King
@WSJ
. You’re gonna want to hear it!
No verdict yet in the Holmes trial but there was a mysterious 23-minute meeting yesterday morning between the judge and the parties. When we inquired about getting a transcript, we were told it was sealed.
Elizabeth Holmes's criminal defense has apparently cost more than $30 million. That's what she owes her lawyers, according to the probation officers' pre-sentencing report.
The jury asks if it can re-listen to the tape of the call Holmes held with investors in December 2013. The call will be replayed for the jury in the courtroom.
I missed this gem: In his restitution ruling, Davila determined that Holmes and Balwani should repay Murdoch $125 million. That's how much he'd invested in Theranos...