Prosecutors on Friday rested their case against Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, and a lawyer for Holmes asked the judge to acquit Holmes on the basis of insufficient evidence against her.
The prosecution opened its case about 10 weeks ago, but only called a fraction of the people on its witness list to testify. Key evidence the jury has seen against Holmes included that she distributed to investors and others reports lauding Theranos and bearing apparently stolen logos from pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Schering-Plough. Jurors also heard that Holmes told investors her technology was being used on med-evac helicopters, despite testimony from a former Theranos employee that he was not aware that her blood-testing machines were used clinically on soldiers in war zones or military aircraft.
Also on Friday, the judge dismissed one of the fraud counts against Holmes because the patient it related to did not receive one of the blood tests the prosecution listed as being at issue in the case. Holmes now faces 11 felony fraud counts.
After prosecutors rested their case, Holmes lawyer Amy Saharia asked Judge Edward Davila to dismiss the case against Holmes under a federal-courts rule allowing judges to acquit if there is not enough evidence for a conviction. The evidence against Holmes, Saharia said, was “insufficient on every element and every count.” Judge Edward Davila reserved judgment.
Holmes, who founded the Palo Alto blood-testing startup at age 19 in 2003, is charged with allegedly bilking investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars and defrauding patients with false claims that the company’s machines could conduct a full range of tests using just a few drops of blood, when she knew the technology had serious accuracy problems. She and her co-accused, former company president Sunny Balwani, have denied the allegations. Balwani is to be tried next year.
The defense said it would call start to call witnesses in the case Friday. Earlier court filings show Holmes claimed she was coerced and abused by Balwani, her former long-term romantic partner, and may call a psychologist to testify in support of those claims.
Holmes, charged with a dozen counts, faces maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $2.75 million fine if convicted, plus possible restitution, the Department of Justice has said.
