Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes spoke at the 2015 Clinton Global Initiative in New York on September 29, 2015.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Elizabeth Holmes, whose company Theranos promised a revolutionary way to detect disease, is likely to delay her criminal trial until early 2021 due to a global pandemic with no cure in sight.
Federal District Judge Edward Dávila said Monday that “we are guided by the Covid cloud” by thinking of delaying the start of the trial, which was scheduled to begin in October.
The hearing was conducted through a Zoom call in which Holmes’ attorneys and prosecutors discussed delaying the start of the trial.
“Proceeding in the midst of a pandemic carries great risks,” said Lance Wade, an attorney for Holmes. “We believe that a test in the short term is not realistic, it just is not safe. If we are forced to do it, we will do it, but it puts people in danger and we prefer not to do it.”
However, prosecutors argued that the government is ready to proceed as planned.
“From the government’s perspective, we are ready to go, and it is important for this case to develop quickly,” said Assistant US Attorney Robert Leach. “The fraud here is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Davila, who was hesitant to delay the trial, said that “taking your foot off the accelerator makes the finish line darker.”
The judge set a hearing in August to decide on a new exact date for the trial.
Prosecutors allege that Holmes and his co-defendant, former Theranos president Sunny Balwani, deliberately misled investors, business partners and doctors, despite promising that they could perform hundreds of laboratory tests with just one or two drops of blood.
Both Holmes and Balwani have denied the allegations and in the documents call the government’s case “unconstitutionally vague.”
Theranos, once valued at more than $ 9 billion, was one of Silicon Valley’s startup unicorn companies. He drew the backing of some of the top venture capitalists and a number of high-profile people with deep pockets.
Prosecutors revealed a witness list that identifies 170 people living in 15 different states, including many who are hotspots for Covid-19. Sixteen of the witnesses are over 65 years old.
According to the list, former United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis and former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger could be called to testify at the high-profile trial. Both were on the board of the failed blood testing startup.
Media titan Ruport Murdoch, whose company News Corp owns the Wall Street Journal, which first exposed Theranos’ shortcomings and inaccuracies, is also on the witness list.
The accusations were made two years ago. Last week, a twelfth felony fraud charge was dropped that the government added against Holmes in May.
However, prosecutors filed a second replacement indictment on Friday against Holmes.
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