Elizabeth Holmes

Elizabeth Anne Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 with a promise: blood tests from a fingerprick, no more needles, results from drops instead of vials. By 2015 Forbes valued the company at $9 billion and named her the wealthiest self-made woman under 30 in the country. The next year journalists and regulators began asking questions the technology couldn't answer, and Fortune listed her among the world's most disappointing leaders. In 2018 the SEC charged Holmes and COO Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani - her secret romantic partner through most of the company's life - with defrauding investors of $700 million through false claims about accuracy; she paid a $500,000 fine, surrendered her shares and voting control, and accepted a ten-year ban from leading a public company. A federal grand jury indicted her months later. In January 2022 a jury convicted her of defrauding investors, acquitted her on patient fraud, and she drew an 11-year sentence. She has been at Federal Prison Camp, Bryan since May 2023, ordered with Balwani to pay $452 million in restitution.