People have been wondering what happened to Elizabeth Holmes' net worth ever since Theranos was forced to shut down its activities. Once upon a time, she was the world's youngest self-made wealthy woman, having served as CEO and founder of a now-defunct Silicon Valley health technology business. However, Elizabeth Holmes' net worth has drastically changed in recent years.
Elizabeth Holmes' Early Life
Holmes was born on February 3, 1984, in Washington, D.C., to parents who were both lawyers. Her mother, Noel, worked as a Congressional committee worker, but her father, Christian, worked as a vice president at the energy giant Enron before moving into government posts at organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Originally from Washington, D.C., Holmes and her family moved to Houston, Texas when she was a little child. Even as a child, Sherlock Holmes has a natural aptitude for creativity, frequently filling entire notebooks with sketches of concepts and designs.
Her father received a letter from her when she was nine years old in which she stated, “What I really want out of life is to discover something new, something that mankind didn't know was possible.”
Over the course of his high school career, Holmes developed a practice of staying up late to study on a consistent basis. She quickly got to the top of her class and even went on to start her own firm, which she used to sell C++ compilers (software that translates computer code) to Chinese educational institutions.
As a high school student, Holmes enrolled in Mandarin courses, which she used to persuade Stanford University to accept her into their summer program, which culminated in a trip to Beijing.
It was at this time that Holmes decided she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her great-great-grandfather, a surgeon, and seek a career in medicine. Her fear of needles was immediately shown, however, and she was forced to leave the room.
Following her company's launch, Holmes explained how her experience had influenced the decision to found Theranos, which sought to transform the way people tested their blood by using technology that purportedly required only a finger pinprick to detect medical conditions ranging from cancer to high cholesterol.
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How much money was Elizabeth Holmes able to swindle?
Holmes was introduced to venture funders by her former Stanford advisor, Channing Roberston, after starting Theranos. By the end of 2004, the young entrepreneur had raised almost $6 million in venture capital from famous investors. It's estimated that Holmes raised about $700 million for Theranos over the next decade.
Investors and the general public were kept in the dark about how Theranos' technology actually functioned for years, and there was no public corporate website or press release to speak of. When Theranos teamed up with Walgreens to open blood sample collection stations in Walgreens stores, the company's public image began to grow.
During this time period, Holmes began to make headlines: she spoke on panels, delivered speeches, and was declared the youngest self-made female millionaire by Fortune and Forbes at the age of 30. During its height, Theranos had a reported value of around $9 billion.
But there was something missing from the equation. There were problems with the Theranos technology that were pointed out to CEO Elizabeth Holmes by Ian Gibbons, chief scientist at the business and one of its first employees, according to an investigation by Vanity Fair's Nick Bilton.
Observers from other fields have begun to voice their concerns about Theranos as well. John Ioannidis and Eleftherios Diamandis questioned the veracity of her company's technology in 2015, and these issues came to a head.
Reporter John Carreyrou of the Wall Street Journal conducted a damaging investigation into Theranos later that year in which he said the company's blood-testing device Edison could not provide accurate findings.
Theranos, on the other hand, was utilizing conventional blood testing machines. Allegedly, Holmes understood what she was doing, yet she proceeded to tell lies to her investors, doctors, and patients in order to raise funds.
The FDA began an investigation into Theranos following the publication of the WSJ piece. Multiple violations of FDA Title 21 regulations were found throughout the 2015 investigation.
Additionally, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began an inquiry into a Theranos laboratory based in Newark, California, in January of 2016.
Later, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a two-year ban on Holmes from owning or running a clinical blood-testing laboratory.
Many medical authorities, state and federal agencies, investors, and patients continued to take legal action against Theranos in the years to come. What was left of the corporation was dissolved in September of this year following a long-running legal dispute.
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What is Elizabeth Holmes’ net worth?
So, what exactly is Elizabeth Holmes' current net worth? According to Forbes, with the demise of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes' net worth plummeted from an estimated $4.5 billion to nothing by 2022, according to the publication.
The former firm's founder and CEO, as well as former company president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, were both charged with fraud by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2018.
The indictment of Holmes and Balwani on wire fraud and conspiracy charges was announced by the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California the following year.
It was originally planned for Holmes' trial to begin in August 2020, but it was postponed because she was expecting a child. Her trial was scheduled to begin in August 2021, one year after her arrest.
On January 3, 2022, Holmes was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and he was sentenced to three years in prison. With a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count against Holmes, he could face a total of 80 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
As of March 2022, Holmes is free on bond, awaiting sentencing in September 2022, according to court records.
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