Theranos patient to attorney: Arizona man responds to Elizabeth Holmes’ upheld conviction
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The founder of the infamous and fraudulent company Theranos will remain in prison after fighting to get her conviction overturned.
An appeals court upheld her conviction after she and her Theranos partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, claimed the trial was improper based on who was allowed to testify and who wasn’t.
Elizabeth Holmes saw meteoric success with her blood-testing company, which turned out to be a complete fraud. She’s now serving an 11-year federal sentence.
Her company sold blood tests to 175,000 people in Arizona.
“Red flag after red flag after red flag started coming up and we eventually sued them,” said Phoenix attorney Leonard Aragon, who became entwined in the case in more than one way.
During her reign, Holmes visited Arizona in 2014 and built multiple labs and 40 Theranos wellness locations at Walgreens across the Valley. That’s when Phoenix attorney Leonard Aragon first encountered Theranos as a regular patient.
“You actually got your blood tested at a Theranos location?” asked true crime correspondent Briana Whitney.
“I did,” Aragon said.
“And what was that experience like?” asked Whitney.
“It was very odd,” said Aragon. “You can’t record what’s going on in the room or even what the room looked like, which I thought was very odd from an attorney’s perspective.”
He described the experience as secretive and bizarre, but beyond that, he also noticed empty promises.
“The whole advertisement was kind of a drop of blood, this very minimal amount of blood, could tell you a lot. Is that what happened?” asked Whitney.
“Yeah no,” said Aragon. “That never happened. There were no pin pricks, it was just a regular blood draw you got at your regular doctor’s office or clinic.”
It was then that Aragon became involved with Theranos in a whole different way.
“Within days or weeks of this occurring, of me going to Theranos, we were approached by someone to investigate a case against Theranos, Aragon said.
As the case unfolded, Aragon represented Theranos victims as part of a class action lawsuit, learning that a majority of their tests were fraudulent.
“Once I started investigating Theranos, it became very clear to me that something was wrong. And I mean clear from the get-go,” he said.
All of the Arizona locations closed in 2016, and Theranos went under.
Elizabeth Holmes and her partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were convicted of defrauding millions from investors.
Aragon agreed with the appeals court’s decision to uphold Holmes’ conviction.
“There were no problems here. She deserves to be in jail and I’m glad she is,” he said.
Holmes began her sentence almost two years ago. As of this week, her listed release date from federal prison is March 2032.
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