"At age 30, Holmes was regarded as a preternatural business talent and, more impressively, described as the youngest self-made female billionaire in history owing to her founding and stewardship of Theranos, a Silicon Valley start-up that promised to revolutionize health care by diagnosing a host of maladies with just a pinprick's worth of blood. It was all a big con job. Her medical claims were a sham."
"In January 2022, a jury in San Jose convicted Holmes on four counts of fraud and conspiracy. At age 37, she became a case study in gullibility and greed. Months later, Holmes by then a mother of two was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison. She began serving her term in May 2023, at a women's prison camp outside Houston."
"Now, Holmes who spawned a best-selling book, podcasts, a documentary, a TV miniseries and, not incidentally, stole hundreds of millions of dollars from investors is lobbying for a pardon from President Trump. And why not? Game knows game. Grift knows grift. Of all the powers a president wields, few match his awesome pardon authority. It is sweeping and life-changing. Idiosyncratic, resting wholly on personal whim, and irrevocable. Once granted, it is impossible to reverse."
Elizabeth Holmes rose to fame as founder and CEO of Theranos, promoted as a prodigious entrepreneur and youngest self-made female billionaire. Theranos claimed to diagnose many diseases from a pinprick of blood. Those medical claims and the company's technology proved false and fraudulent. A jury convicted Holmes in January 2022 on four counts of fraud and conspiracy. She received an 11-year, three-month prison sentence and began serving in May 2023 at a women's prison camp outside Houston. Holmes is now lobbying President Trump for a pardon. Presidential pardon power is sweeping, irrevocable, and vulnerable to abuse and caprice.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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