SAN JOSE, Calif.—Over seven weeks in the criminal fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes, prosecutors have shown that her startup Theranos Inc. took shortcuts when claims about its revolutionary blood-testing technology became scientifically unfeasible and that employees feared retaliation for raising concerns.
Roughly halfway into a trial scheduled to run until mid-December, jurors have heard from a patient who said Theranos blood tests incorrectly led her to believe she was miscarrying, an investor who was swayed to give $5 million by the false claim that Theranos devices would help save soldiers’ lives, and a former government official and a supermarket chief executive officer who lost confidence in an entrepreneur they had once enthusiastically backed.
