Theranos " Demo ' s " Would Not Have Fooled Competent Lab Professionals

In a recent note I discussed the fraud charges that have been brought against Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos (see: Elizabeth Holmes, Founder of Theranos, Charged by SEC with Massive Fraud). In the final paragraph of this note, I questioned how the executives of Pharmacy A (possibly Walgreens) could have been duped by Holmes and her associates into believing that the Theranos analyzer was market-ready. On this basis, they invested in the company. Walgreens reportedly settled a suit against Theranos for under $30M (see:Theranos, Walgreens reportedly reach a deal to settle suit for under $30 million). Here is the excerpt from my note:I understand that a number of fraudulent claims were made to Pharmacy A executives by Holmes and she is now being brought to justice for her behavior.However, one does need to ask why the executives of this referenced pharmacy company did not take steps to verify claims about her company's analyzer that could have been easily and quickly verified in a lab setting. She either was one of the world's greatest snake-oil"salesperson" or the pharmacy executives were hopelessly naive or both. A recent article in theNew York Times about Theranos (see: Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos C.E.O. and Silicon Valley Star, Accused of Fraud) made the following comment about these phoney, staged demo's by Theranos:Ms. Holmes and the company even went so far as to demonstrate their product on potential investors, the S.E....
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