Elizabeth Holmes is getting real familiar with the inside of a courtroom.
The founder of now-defunct blood-testing company Theranos appeared in federal court in California Monday to find out if the judge has set a date for her trial. So far, there's been no official word about a trial date. (Sorry, guys.)
How is that possible when she was indicted on fraud charges in June of last year, you ask? Good question.
"For a while, the defense was arguing that they needed more time, that there were delays in the discovery," John Carreyrou, a Wall Street Journal reporter and author of Bad Blood, explained today on CNBC's Power Lunch . "In the latest joint briefing by the government and the defense, the government is saying now were ready to go to trial and we want the judge to set a trial date, but the defense is saying they need more time."
A quick refresher: Elizabeth started Theranos in 2003, promising a new, revolutionary way to draw and test blood with just a finger pinprick and the ability to detect major medical conditions, like cancer and high cholesterol. By 2014, thanks to investors, the company was valued at $9 billion.
In 2015, Carreyrou's WSJ investigation started to question whether the founding technology that Elizabeth sold everyone existed-any by 2018, Elizabeth (as well as her partner Sunny Balwani) was indicted on 11 counts of fraud and conspiracy. She now faces up to 20 years in prison.
While the world anxiously waits Elizabeth's trial date, she is, apparently unfazed.
"She's been seen galavanting around San Francisco and Silicon Valley, going to dinners with her fianc [Billy Evans]," Carreyrou said on today's episode of Power Lunch. "They were seen going to Burning Man on the day the company dissolved. So clearly she's behaving like nothing is wrong, and she's kind of happy-go-lucky. That's not, I don't think, how most people in this predicament would behave."
I'd say I'm surprised, but that'd be...fraud.
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