What a shocker. Do not feel sorry for her lawyers. Hope she gets a LONG prison term for her fraud.
Lawyers for Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of Theranos, are begging off defending her in a class-action fraud case, claiming that she hasn’t paid them for over a year.
Lawyers Stephen Neal, John Dwyer and Jeffrey Lombard — all of the Palo Alto-based Cooley law firm — asked earlier this week to withdraw from defending Holmes in the case in Arizona federal court.
“Given Ms. Holmes’s current financial situation, Cooley has no expectation that Ms. Holmes will ever pay it for its services as her counsel,” the lawyers wrote in a Monday motion. “Thus, it is unfair and unreasonable to require Cooley to continue representing Ms. Holmes.”
Holmes’ lawyers, who didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, reported in their motion that the case has no trial date as yet and no scheduled hearings.
It could not be determined how much Holmes — a Silicon Valley wunderkind whose startup had once been valued at $9 billion — owes Cooley for its legal services.
The Mercury News of San Jose, California, which first reported on the lawyers’ motion, noted the case against Holmes also accuses her company and Walgreens, which had provided Theranos blood-testing services in Arizona and Palo Alto, of fraud.
The nine original plaintiffs in the class action are ex-Theranos customers, including a woman who claimed that Theranos’ inaccurate results had her testing positive for an autoimmune disease.
Theranos and Walgreens have both filed motions to remove themselves from the class action.
Separately, in a federal criminal case, Holmes and former Theranos president Sunny Balwani face 11 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The pair has pleaded not guilty to those charges and to allegations that Theranos’ “miniLab” system, which used a few drops of blood from a finger-prick to conduct a wide range of tests, endangered the health and lives of customers.
The criminal case is set for trial on next July in San Jose federal court.
If found guilty, Holmes, who founded Theranos after dropping out of Stanford University at 19, and former boyfriend Balwani each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution, for each individual count of wire fraud and conspiracy, according to the US Attorneys office.
No doubt she isn’t missing and meals or in danger of being homeless. When you go broke in a big way you don’t worry about things like that.
“ The work of destruction is quick, easy and exhilarating; the work of creation is slow, laborious and dull.
October 05, 2019, 10:11 PM
Rey HRH
Fun fact: Elizabeth’s dad was a Vice President in Enron.
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
October 06, 2019, 05:18 AM
gearhounds
If she is truly indigent, never fear; she will get the best representation our tax dollars can buy. But let’s hope that she still has capital so that she ends up representing herself when she can’t legally be afforded court appointed counsel. Next stop, jail.
“Remember to get vaccinated or a vaccinated person might get sick from a virus they got vaccinated against because you’re not vaccinated.” - author unknown
October 06, 2019, 06:32 AM
egregore
Considering what she was accused of, you'd think they'd have asked for pay up front.
"The Almighty, He put some livin' things on this earth so a man can eat." - Festus Haggen, Gunsmoke
October 06, 2019, 07:02 AM
Harleysbluff
What does she do all day ? Just live in fantasy world ?
MDS
October 06, 2019, 07:24 AM
r0gue
quote:
Originally posted by Harleysbluff: What does she do all day ? Just live in fantasy world ?
She may well walk in a fantasy world, but she does so in $2,900 shoes and a Range Rover in the drive. Sociopath I suspect, but they have a way of hydroplaning over all of this shit and living like a queen to the end.
October 06, 2019, 11:04 AM
220-9er
quote:
Originally posted by egregore: Considering what she was accused of, you'd think they'd have asked for pay up front.
^^^ They agree to defend a con woman in a civil suit, thinking she has money to pay them. She cons them too. Great advertisement for their legal skills and judgement.
Note: this isn't the criminal case, it's a lawsuit from the victims seeking any money they can find. I don't think the taxpayers are on the hook to defend her on this one.
Originally posted by r0gue: Sociopath I suspect, but they have a way of hydroplaning over all of this shit and living like a queen to the end.
Spot on.
“Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.” – James Madison
"Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others." - Robert Louis Stevenson
October 06, 2019, 11:10 AM
sigmonkey
quote:
Originally posted by egregore: Considering what she was accused of, you'd think they'd have asked for pay up front.
Well, in her defense, she devised debt repayment system that only requires a very small amount of money.
"the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" ✡ Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא עוד
October 06, 2019, 11:13 AM
ZSMICHAEL
quote:
Well, in her defense, she devised debt repayment system that only requires a very small amount of money.
^^^^^^^^ That was funny! I wonder if the guy she married has a prenuptial agreement since he is the heir to a hotel empire of sorts?
October 06, 2019, 01:09 PM
BBMW
She married a guy who's the heir to a $100 million hotel chain. So she's not living in a cardboard box.
quote:
Originally posted by Icabod: No doubt she isn’t missing and meals or in danger of being homeless. When you go broke in a big way you don’t worry about things like that.
October 06, 2019, 01:28 PM
senza nome
quote:
Originally posted by BBMW: She married a guy who's the heir to a $100 million hotel chain. So she's not living in a cardboard box.
I wonder how much blood she'll get out of him.
October 06, 2019, 01:34 PM
V-Tail
quote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Well, in her defense, she devised debt repayment system that only requires a very small amount of money.
She has agreed to pay one million dollars.
One dollar a year, for a million years.
הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים
October 06, 2019, 01:49 PM
BBMW
If she hasn't declared bankruptcy yet she will (although I don't know how her marriage will effect that), so I don't know the value of any civil lawsuits against her.
And, of course, she's looking at spending at least a few years in an ill fitting orange jumpsuit at some point.
October 06, 2019, 02:07 PM
Woodman
quote:
Originally posted by r0gue: Sociopath I suspect ...
Interesting. I was musing upon the same conclusion and wondered if our community knows the true Profile of a Sociopath
Interesting. I was musing upon the same conclusion and wondered if our community knows the true Profile of a Sociopath
^^^^^^^^^^^^ Probably pretty accurate. Her background and the manner in which she was raised fit the picture of a certain moral flexibility combined with an utter sense of denial that she would be caught someday. There is a certain portion of the population that is sociopathic. They may never run afoul of the law, but do tremendous damage to others through the course of their lives.
January 03, 2022, 02:15 PM
ZSMICHAEL
Holmes jury given the Allen charge. Here is the story:
SAN JOSE, Calif.—A federal judge instructed jurors in the criminal-fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes to continue deliberating after they said they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on three of the 11 charges against the Theranos Inc. founder.
Jurors communicated their status with a note to the court just before 10 a.m. Monday, the seventh day of deliberations, suggesting they may have reached a unanimous verdict on the remaining eight counts.
The note marked a crucial update from the jury of eight men and four women since it was handed the case Dec. 17. After consultation with lawyers on both sides, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila instructed the jurors to keep deliberating and reminded them of the instructions they must follow to make their decision and that the prosecution has the burden to prove Ms. Holmes’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
“Take as much time as you need to discuss things. There is no hurry,” Judge Davila said, reading aloud what’s known as an “Allen charge” or a “dynamite charge” used to help deadlocked juries reach a verdict.
He then sent the 12 jurors back to continue deliberating, telling them to notify the court if they have additional questions.
Ms. Holmes hugged her mother and partner, Billy Evans, after the jurors left the courtroom. Her defense lawyers told the judge they preferred he didn’t read the Allen charge at risk of it being coercive to the jury.
Jurors are deliberating on 11 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud pertaining to Ms. Holmes’s leadership of her defunct blood-testing startup.
Originally posted by gearhounds: If she is truly indigent, never fear; she will get the best representation our tax dollars can buy. But let’s hope that she still has capital so that she ends up representing herself when she can’t legally be afforded court appointed counsel. Next stop, jail.
Not in the civil suit against her, which is what this is about. There is no right to counsel for that.
Her lawyers should have got a bigger retainer. They'll get let out of the case, but they'll probably never get paid. The plaintiffs aren't likely to get any money out of her either.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
January 03, 2022, 02:31 PM
rscalzo
quote:
Elizabeth Holmes,
It took a secret investigation by the Wall Street Journal to uncover the fraud associated with her process of blood testing. Why didn't the FDA find out long before this point?
quote:
John Carreyrou of The Wall Street Journal initiated a secret, months-long investigation of Theranos after he received a tip from a medical expert who thought the Edison blood testing device seemed suspicious. Carreyrou spoke to ex-employee whistleblowers and obtained company documents. When Holmes learned of the investigation, she initiated a campaign through her lawyer David Boies to stop Carreyrou from publishing, which included legal and financial threats against both the Journal and the whistleblowers.[
Most likely every cent she has was already frozen by the lawyers for the upcoming civil suits.
[claiming that she hasn’t paid them for over a year./QUOTE]
They can cry all they want. I have no doubt that their retaining up from was a very large seven figure number.