The journalist who exposed Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos scam

John Carreyrou's reporting led to the downfall of Theranos

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter John Carreyrou, who first broke the Theranos story more than seven years ago, says he is not surprised the judge chose to impose a stiff sentence on its founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes.

Holmes, 38, has been sentenced to just over 11 years in prison for defrauding investors through her now-defunct startup Theranos. She was CEO throughout the company’s turbulent 15-year history and was convicted in January in the scheme which revolved around the company’s claims to have developed a medical device that could detect a multitude of diseases and conditions from a few drops of blood. But the technology never worked, and the claims were false.

The downfall of Theranos began in 2015, when John Carreyrou, then an investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal, exposed the company’s false claims in a series of articles. Carreyrou revealed how the company’s Edison device was not able to run a wide range of tests from a tiny blood sample, as it claimed.

Instead, Theranos was using medical devices from other companies to provide testing, the reports revealed.

Less than three years after the publication of Carreyrou’s exposé, Theranos dissolved and its founder Holmes went from a Silicon Valley star to a cautionary tale.

In 2018, Carreyrou also published a book on the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes. ‘Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup’ became a bestseller.

Speaking to NBC News after her sentencing on Friday, the French-American reporter said, “I feel relief that this saga is over. I started reporting on Theranos in early 2015. This story has taken up more than seven years of my life.”

He said the judge chose to impose a stiff sentence on Holmes, but her lies not only defrauded investors but also put patients in harm’s way. “The way her actions jeopardised the public health was a huge part of this,” he said. “In light of those things, I’m not surprised the judge chose to impose a stiff sentence.”