PHOENIX — Editor's note: This article was originally published in Nov. 2022. Holmes has since been set to start her prison sentence on April 27, 2023.
Elizabeth Holmes used to be the next big thing, the leader of a revolutionary company. Now, she has been sentenced to behind bars for more than a decade.
Holmes was convicted in January for defrauding investors in a scheme that revolved around the company’s claims to have developed a medical device that could detect a multitude of diseases and conditions from a few drops of blood. But the technology never worked.
Arizona was ground zero for the failed tech.
Back in 2015, Republicans, Democrats and Gov. Doug Ducey joined Holmes to celebrate the passage of HB 2645. The law essentially allowed Theranos to be a part of 40 Walgreens Wellness centers across the state.
“I want you to know I appreciate the partnership and investment Theranos has made in Arizona,” Ducey said at the time.
“It’s why we believe Arizona’s law can and should serve as a model for the nation,” Holmes said at the very same news conference.
From 2013-2016, more than 170,000 Arizonans took a Theranos blood test.
“A giant unauthorized experiment on Arizona consumers.” John Carreyrou, Author of "Bad Blood" said on Sunday Squareoff in 2018.
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Carreyrou said Holmes used Arizona's acceptance to get even more investors on board.
“She was able to go to billionaire investors that the technology worked. And how could it not? It’s already commercially used in Arizona.” Carreyrou said.
However, no one vetted to see if the blood test worked. Not the politicians, not the investors, not even Walgreens.
"Surely it had vetted the technology, and as I reveal in my book, Walgreens had not vetted the technology as well," Carreyrou said.
The company made money from the blood of Arizonans. Lawsuits filed reveal that mistakes were made.
During last year's criminal trial, a Phoenix woman testified in the trial the Theranos test falsely told her she had HIV.
A Mesa woman testified she found out she was pregnant – and a Theranos test told her she was headed for a miscarriage. She had a healthy baby.
Eventually, every Theranos clinic shut down.
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