Holmes and Shkreli: Why Different Treatment for Their Financial Misdeeds?

In a recent note about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, I commented on the rough similarity of the financial fraud committed by her and Martin Shkreli. However, he is now serving a jail sentence of seven years and she seems to have escaped, at least thus far, with a relatively minor punishment. These divergent outcomes were discussed in a recent article (see:Shkreli vs. Holmes: 2 Frauds, 2 Divergent Outcomes. Were They Fair?). Below is an excerpt from it:Few white-collar defendants have been more reviled than the man known as the Pharma Bro, Martin Shkreli, even before he was convicted on multiple counts of securities fraud....Ben Brafman, Mr. Shkreli ’s defense lawyer, told me this week that in his four decades of representing high-profile clients, he’d never encountered so many potential jurors who asked to be excused because they didn’t think they could give his client a fair hearing....In stark contrast, Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the Silicon Valley blood-testing start-up Theranos, was one of the most lauded members of her young generation....Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Ms. Holmes and the company ’s former president of masterminding a “massive fraud” at Theranos.....Ms. Holmes settled the S.E.C. ’s charges without admitting or denying them. She is barred from being an officer or director of any public company for 10 years and agreed to pay a fine of $500,000....She could still face criminal charges. It ’s unusu...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Source Type: blogs