- Elizabeth Holmes reported to prison May 30 to start an 11-year sentence for fraud.
- Before Theranos collapsed, the founder managed to convince lots of big names to invest in it.
- Here are some who got burned by Theranos, from the Walton family to Rupert Murdoch.
Elizabeth Holmes reported to prison May 30 to start serving her 11-year sentence after being found guilty last year of defrauding investors at Theranos.
While at the helm of the failed blood-testing startup, Holmes managed to convince presidential cabinet members, billionaire CEOs, and other high-profile figures to throw billions at the company.
She and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her ex-boyfriend and Theranos’ former president and COO, have been ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to victims of their fraud.
Here’s a list of some of the investors who got burned by Theranos, according to legal documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal and a court filing that details restitution orders.
The Walton family
The Waltons — the Walmart founders and America’s richest family with a net worth of $247 billion as of 2020, according to Forbes — invested $150 million in Theranos.
Rupert Murdoch
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch poured $125 million into the company. Ironically the downfall of Theranos was triggered by reporting in The Wall Street Journal, one of the newspapers he controlled.
As part of Holmes’ and Balwani’s restitution, Murdoch is supposed to receive the full amount of his investment back, though it’s possible Holmes and Balwani may never be able to pay back everything Theranos’ investors are owed.
The DeVos family
The DeVos family, who are heirs to the Amway empire and includes former US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, poured $100 million into Theranos. Like Murdoch, they’re also meant to get the full sum back.
The Cox family
Theranos also got $100 million from the Atlanta-based billionaire Cox family, which owns the media and automotive company Cox Enterprises. The Cox family was the eight-wealthiest in the US as of 2020, with a net worth of $34.5 billion at the time, according to Forbes.
Carlos Slim
Carlos Slim is the world’s 11th richest man and runs the largest mobile-phone operator in Latin America, América Móvil. He sank $30 million into Theranos, according to an initial complaint.
Slim’s charitable foundation also linked up with Holmes in June 2015 to distribute Theranos’ now defunct blood testing kits in Mexico.
Andreas Dracopoulos
Greek shipping magnate Andreas Dracopoulos invested $25 million into Theranos, but only after staff at his philanthropic organisation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, stopped him doing it through the trust, per court testimony reported by The Wall Street Journal.
He isn’t listed among the parties ordered to be reimbursed by Holmes and Balwani.
Robert Kraft
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft invested $1 million in Theranos – a drop in the ocean compared to his $7.2 billion net worth, per Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He wasn’t listed in the restitution settlement.
It’s also not the only time Kraft was burned by an investment. The billionaire was caught up in the collapse of FTX alongside his former star quarterback Tom Brady.
Alan Eisenman
Alan Eisenman, a less high-profile investor in Theranos, poured $1.2 million into the company after a five-minute phone call with Holmes in 2006, The Verge reported.
Still, he said he missed out on $30 million in profits by refusing to sell his shares back to Holmes before the company collapsed, per CBS. Holmes and Balwani were ordered to pay Eisenman about $100,000.
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