SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Fallen Silicon Valley star Elizabeth Holmes convinced media mogul Rupert Murdoch and other billionaires to invest in her biotechnology startup despite warnings its unconventional blood tests were dangerously unreliable.
That evidence emerged Tuesday during a high-profile trial revolving around allegations that Holmes duped investors, customers, and unwitting patients as CEO of Theranos, a company she founded when she was 19.
Holmes briefly became a Silicon Valley sensation peddling the premise that she had invented a revolutionary blood-testing technology.
According to the Associated Press, Holmes' startup quickly unraveled because the blood-testing machine, dubbed Edison, produced inaccurate test results and didn't work the way Holmes described it would.
Holmes launched Theranos after dropping out of Stanford University her dream of becoming the next Steve Jobs.
She's now in danger of becoming remembered as a con artist.
But a former Theranos lab director painted a darker picture as a witness for prosecutors trying to convince a jury to convict Holmes of massive fraud.