Elizabeth Holmes went from being celebrated as a visionary entrepreneur to becoming one of the most infamous figures in Silicon Valley. Her company Theranos collapsed over allegations that it misled investors and patients about its technology.
The latest project, You Can See Everything, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, follows Holmes before she began her prison sentence. The documentary received attention after its surprise premiere at the Telluride Film Festival.
Holmes, the founder and former CEO of Theranos, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison after being convicted of defrauding investors. Holmes was convicted in January 2022 on four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against investors who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Theranos. She was sentenced in November 2022 and later reported to a federal prison in May 2023. Balwani, who served as Theranos’ president and chief operating officer, was separately convicted of fraud charges and received a nearly 13-year prison sentence. Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 after dropping out of Stanford University at the age of 19. By 2014, Theranos was valued at about $9 billion, making Holmes the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world. Dr Jeffrey Flier, the former dean of Harvard Medical School, met her in 2015 and said, “I knew she’d had this brilliant idea and that she had managed to convince all these investors and scientists. Concerns regarding Theranos’ flagship technology, Edison, were voiced by a whistleblower in 2015. Theranos eventually officially dissolved as Holmes was arrested in 2018.
However, investigations later revealed that the company’s technology did not work as promised. Because of her carefully crafted image and ambitious vision, holmes appeared on magazine covers and was compared to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Her case has returned to public attention with the upcoming documentary You Can See Everything, which revisits the final period before she began serving her sentence. Holmes became one of the most recognisable names in the technology world after claiming that Theranos could transform healthcare with a device that could run hundreds of medical tests using only a few drops of blood. Prosecutors accused Holmes of misleading investors and patients about the capabilities of Theranos’ blood-testing machines. Prosecutors argued that Holmes knowingly exaggerated the company’s technology and business success to attract funding from wealthy investors, including media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and members of the Walton family. Holmes maintained that she did not intentionally commit fraud and pleaded not guilty during her trial. Her defence argued that she believed in Theranos’ mission and that Balwani, her former romantic partner and business associate, had influenced company decisions. A California jury ultimately found Holmes guilty on four investor-related fraud charges but acquitted her on several other counts involving patients. The company claimed its Edison device could quickly detect illnesses using a small blood sample collected through a finger prick. The promise attracted major investors and influential figures. Flier added, “She was self-assured, but when I asked her several questions about her technology, she didn’t look like she understood. The Wall Street Journal published several scathing articles alleging that the company had conducted the majority of its testing on widely available equipment from other manufacturers and that the results were untrustworthy. Following the revelations, business partnerships ended and regulators investigated the company. Holmes faced increasing legal pressure. Holmes’ story has been revisited through books, documentaries and television adaptations, including Hulu’s The Dropout starring Amanda Seyfried.
The US Department of Justice said Holmes and former Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani misled investors about the company’s ability to perform accurate medical tests.
Holmes’ public persona, her connection to the Theranos crisis, and her reaction to the circumstances that ruined her career are all documented in the 125-minute movie.
