Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes settles 'massive fraud' charges

Elizabeth Holmes.
(Image credit: Kimberly White/Getty Images)

Under an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes has agreed to pay a $500,000 fine to settle charges of fraud, U.S. regulators announced Wednesday.

Theranos, which once had a $9 billion valuation, claimed that it could change the way blood was analyzed in a laboratory. In its complaint, the SEC alleged that Holmes and former Theranos president Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani made "numerous false and misleading statements in investor presentations, product demonstrations, and media articles" about its devices, and raised "more than $700 million from investors through an elaborate, years-long fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the company's technology, business, and financial performance."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.