Theranos Trial: the Betrayal of Wade Miquelon

Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos didn't only harm investors and patients--they damaged trust in so many ways, Silicon Valley will never be the same. By recycling indictments, overcharging, and failing to counter Holmes' emotional appeal, the government's lack of focus made the trial unnecessarily complex. One result? Jury instructions are multifarious to the point where jurors might prefer reading Lev Tolstoy (aka Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й) in the original Russian. Complexity is one reason jurors were unable to reach a verdict before Christmas and will return Monday, December 27, 2021 to continue deliberations.

I've already discussed Safeway's Steven Burd, one of America's best executives, but I should have also mentioned Avadis "Avie" Tevanian. Mr. Tevanian was on Theranos' board of directors but resigned in protest. Here's Adam J. Epstein's take: 

"Faced with respected employees who had meaningful ethical concerns about the company, and worrying documentary evidence that the chair didn’t even want to review – much less discuss – Tevanian resigned from the Theranos board [in 2007]."

Tevanian's role lapsed into obscurity because his employment was outside the relevant time period of the government's charges. What the law considers relevant is not the end of a reasoned analysis, so I mention Tevanian to convey that an acquittal says more about the Department of Justice's competency than Silicon Valley's culture. 

Furthermore, a pro-Holmes verdict would not be unreasonable. "Valley of Hype," a documentary, cited current competitors Athelas, Truvian, and Genalyte as evidence Theranos's concepts were "sound." Like Tevanian, however, the aforementioned companies fell outside the scope of the charged conduct and therefore did not warrant trial time.

If reasonable people can disagree on a proper verdict, why do I feel compelled to write about Theranos on Christmas Day? First, I can't shake the feeling this trial is rigged. Before attending United States vs. Elizabeth Holmes, I was researching another famous federal case, United States v. Cecil Price, et al, aka the "Mississippi Burning" trial. Several unsettling photos from the FBI's investigation cannot be unseen, including one seemingly innocuous photo of Deputy Sheriff Price and Sheriff Rainey chewing tobacco in court. Initially, the men's cavalier attitudes were justified. The lower court dismissed the indictments, which, like the Holmes trial, included conspiracy charges. Only after the United States Supreme Court intervened did some officers--also Ku Klux Klan members--receive jail time. As in that heinous case, a carnival atmosphere permeated Holmes' trial. 

One trial attendee tried selling an Elizabeth Holmes costume, black turtlenecks included, outside the courthouse. The Wall Street Journal--the same publication that exposed Theranos' alleged fraud--covered the would-be merchant as if she were a serious entrepreneur. The most relaxed trial participant? Elizabeth Holmes' lover, who also happens to be one of the most polite people I've ever met. As for the journalists present, only John Carreyrou and Adam Lashinsky appear capable of writing above a ninth-grade level. Meanwhile, local reporters deliberately minimized the role of Stanford University--a major advertiser--in their publications.

Given the peculiar circumstances, most people have already forgotten Wade Miquelon, the former Walgreens' executive and one-time Holmes supporter. Read the following emails Miquelon sent Holmes, and weep for what could have been: 

"Don't stop working to help the world." (Miquelon to Holmes, sent August 4, 2016)

"We live in a world where anyone can say anything about anyone whether true or not and if left undefended, then the world will simply assume that it must be true. I've experience [sic] that on a personal level and the stakes are even higher for you/Theranos." (Miquelon to Holmes, December 1, 2015. Signed, "I am... Your friend.")

Walgreens was so invested in Theranos, it was contemplating international expansion.

Holmes' military connections are well-known, but she also met or spoke with Lee Kuan Yew, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, and current president Joseph Biden. What can one say about a country in which marketing is more powerful than substance and TBWA\Chiat\Day still in business at the same time Walter Cronkite and Bill Moyers lack heir apparents? If you think Theranos was such stuff as dreams were made of, you'd have to ignore Holmes' betrayal of Wade Miquelon, a man who sincerely believed Holmes was his friend. Indeed, the more one reads emails from Miquelon and Burd, the more Holmes appears as Iago to Miquelon's Othello.

Despite complexity, whether jurors convict Holmes involves a simple decision. Does America avenge Miquelon or countenance a new twist on an old tragedy? If the latter, may I suggest the following tagline? "Buyer Beware: Even Desdemona May Knife You in the Back."

© Matthew Mehdi Rafat (December 25, 2021) 

"Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial." — Cassio 2.4.262–64

ISSN 2770-002X 

Bonus: I don't remember seeing the Miquelon-Holmes emails I posted above at trial, but if they were admitted as part of an overall batch, the jury can read them during deliberations. 

Update: at 4:10pm PST on January 3, 2022, the jury returned the following verdict: 4 counts, not guilty; 3 counts, deadlocked; and 4 counts, guilty. The government proved 4 of 11 counts/charges, indicating it overcharged.