Mixed verdict in trial of Elizabeth Holmes

CNBC"s Scott Cohn joins The News with Shepard Smith to report on the mixed jury verdict of Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi  Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, the one-time billionaire and darling of Silicon Valley who promised a revolutionary blood-testing technology, has been found guilty of four charges in her criminal fraud trial. The jury of eight men and four women were handed the case in mid-December after three months of proceedings and testimony from 32 witnesses. Deliberations lasted more than 50 hours over seven days. In the end, the jurors convicted Holmes of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud against specific investors. U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila will sentence Holmes at a later date. She faces up to 20 years in prison. Holmes was found not guilty on four charges and the jury determined there was no verdict on the other three. Jurors told Davila earlier on Monday that they were deadlocked on three of the 11 charges. Davila later declared a mistrial on those three counts and scheduled a status meeting for next Monday. Once heralded as the next Steve Jobs, Holmes raised $945 million from high-profile investors including the family of Betsy DeVos, Rupert Murdoch and the Walmart-founding Walton family. Theranos, at its peak, was valued at $9 billion. Holmes was ultimately convicted of defrauding PFM Healthcare Master Fund, a San-Francisco based health-care hedge fund, out of over $38 million; Lakeshore Capital Management, a fund connected to the DeVos family, of almost $100 million; and Mosley Family Holdings, an LLC associated with former estate attorney Daniel Mosley, of close to $6 million. As the jury handed was handing down its decisions, Holmes appeared stoic, showing little emotion and looking straight ahead. After the verdict was read, she went over to her family and embraced them. Holmes exited the courthouse at around 5:25 p.m. PT, without taking questions from reporters. Her attorneys also left without providing a comment. Since its start on Sept.8, the Holmes trial attracted worldwide media attention. In the final weeks of proceedings, journalists and spectators began lining up at 2 a.m. to obtain one of the 34 tickets for the main courtroom or 45 tickets for the overflow room. Jurors heard impassioned pleas in closing arguments from the government and Holmes’ defense. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Schenk told the jury that Holmes “chose fraud over business failure. She chose to be dishonest with her investors and patients. That choice was not only callous, it was criminal.” Schenk reminded the jury that Holmes’ own employees repeatedly told her the technology simply didn’t work, yet she kept raising money on false claims. Prosecutors also tried to convince the jury to disregard Holmes’ claims that her top executive and then-boyfriend Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani abused her. Blaming Balwani was central to Holmes’ defense strategy. However, thousands of private text messages between Holmes and Balwani, obtained by CNBC, undercut some of Holmes’ claims. The messages, which span from June 2011 to July 2016, revealed romantic musings between the two. They showed a high-flying lifestyle while their start-up was bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars. ‘Down with the ship’ “You do not need to decide whether that abuse happened to reach your verdict,” Schenk said. “The case is about false statements made to investors, false statements made to patients.” In his closing argument, Kevin Downey, an attorney for Holmes, told the jury that his client acted in good faith and “believed that she built a technology that could change the world.” » Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision » Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC Turn to CNBC TV for the latest stock market news and analysis. From market futures to live price updates CNBC is the leader in business news worldwide. The News with Shepard Smith is CNBC’s daily news podcast providing deep, non-partisan coverage and perspective on the day’s most important stories. Available to listen by 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT daily beginning September 30: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/the-news-with-shepard-smith-podcast.html?__source=youtube%7Cshepsmith%7Cpodcast    Connect with CNBC News Online Get the latest news: http://www.cnbc.com/ Follow CNBC on LinkedIn: https://cnb.cx/LinkedInCNBC Follow CNBC News on Facebook: https://cnb.cx/LikeCNBC Follow CNBC News on Twitter: https://cnb.cx/FollowCNBC Follow CNBC News on Instagram: https://cnb.cx/InstagramCNBC https://www.cnbc.com/select/best-credit-cards/  #CNBC #CNBCTV


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