Chat with us, powered by LiveChat

For Elizabeth Holmes and the company she founded in 2003, Theranos, everything started so well…

Like many scientists, Holmes’ original intention was laudable – the creation of a machine that could use a single prick of blood to conduct not just one but hundreds of different laboratory tests. After quickly convincing the press of the merits of her invention, Holmes then raised over $700m from investors by allegedly claiming that Theranos’ groundbreaking kit was being used in Afghanistan by the US Department of Defense. So what went wrong?

According to investors’ friend, The Wall Street Journal, Theranos wasn’t using its own machines to conduct most of the tests, but instead relying on traditional blood-testing equipment from other manufacturers. Charged with “massive fraud” by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Stanford-dropout Holmes will now pay a six-figure penalty and is barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for a decade.

Jina Choi, former head of the SEC’s San Francisco office, summed up the lesson succinctly: “Innovators who seek to revolutionize and disrupt an industry must tell investors the truth about what their technology can do today, not just what they hope it might do someday.”

Wishful thinking is one thing; telling porkies to defraud investors another altogether.

Start your R&D tax credit claim now

Take it from the R&D experts

Jumpstart white asterisk
Jumpstart your R&D tax credits…Call us on 0844 967 2626