Theranos - fraud
- Thread starter RedDuke
- Start date
SEC has just charged her with massive fraud...
http://nordic.businessinsider.com/theranos-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-fraud-charge-sec-2018-3/
http://nordic.businessinsider.com/theranos-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-fraud-charge-sec-2018-3/
About time. I was thinking why it did not happen sooner.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-accused-of-fraud-by-sec
"Theranos and Holmes neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the SEC’s complaint."
After reading SEC filing, basically slap on the wrist.
Voice does not match the face.
Are personal assets at risk? I'd assume there was a pretty good salary throughout those years that reaped personal networth growth leading to financial stability and ownership of many personal assets like houses, cars, investments/cash etc. Will those personal assets be at risk?
Actually venture funded startup CEO's generally get paid almost entirely in stock and are pretty poor (relative to CEOs of public companies) until the IPO, which Theranos never had. I'm sure she was making 6 figures, but probably less than $250K, which in the Bay Area isn't going to allow you to accumulate any assets. I'd love to see her go to prison, but you probably won't squeeze any blood out of the turnip when it comes to assets.
Lots of bodies buried in that graveyard.
Expert opinion:
"That isn't how it works (on liquidity due to company sale). Assuming a 1x liquidity preference on preferred stock (rather low for a late stage raise), at any liquidity event the company needs to repay the investors the amount raised before paying anyone out based on their equity ownership. You then take the remaining amount of capital, from the sale, and pay people out based on their equity position.
Theranos did 5+ rounds of funding. Investors probably hold around 60% of the company and employees/board/advisers/founders own the other 40%. The company has a single founder, so she probably owns ~50% of the 40%, so 20% of the company as common stock. She then accepted a reduced position (probably making her a 'minority' holder), so around 5%.
So if the company somehow sold for $2B, ~1.3B would be split between the equity holders, so she would get ~50M (still a shit tonne of money). But that would require someone to actually be willing to pay $2B for the company. The liquidity prefs are probably higher than 1x too (but not affecting all the capital in the company).
Note: Theranos actually raised ~$1.4B, but some of that was secondary markets or private placements so previous investors could have been bought up. Some of the money was also raised after they were shown to be a scam."
"That’s not all it is - the company has to kickback 750mm before the management receives a dime.
She was basically forced to work for free for a decade. Huge punishment. Then they layered on 500k she has to pay personally.
They basically gave her the ball on 4th and 99. She has to make a play or she’s going to jail. And the investors will try to strip every single dime. And probably succeed.
This is a very harsh punishment even if the beginning of the article misses the point."
"That isn't how it works (on liquidity due to company sale). Assuming a 1x liquidity preference on preferred stock (rather low for a late stage raise), at any liquidity event the company needs to repay the investors the amount raised before paying anyone out based on their equity ownership. You then take the remaining amount of capital, from the sale, and pay people out based on their equity position.
Theranos did 5+ rounds of funding. Investors probably hold around 60% of the company and employees/board/advisers/founders own the other 40%. The company has a single founder, so she probably owns ~50% of the 40%, so 20% of the company as common stock. She then accepted a reduced position (probably making her a 'minority' holder), so around 5%.
So if the company somehow sold for $2B, ~1.3B would be split between the equity holders, so she would get ~50M (still a shit tonne of money). But that would require someone to actually be willing to pay $2B for the company. The liquidity prefs are probably higher than 1x too (but not affecting all the capital in the company).
Note: Theranos actually raised ~$1.4B, but some of that was secondary markets or private placements so previous investors could have been bought up. Some of the money was also raised after they were shown to be a scam."
"That’s not all it is - the company has to kickback 750mm before the management receives a dime.
She was basically forced to work for free for a decade. Huge punishment. Then they layered on 500k she has to pay personally.
They basically gave her the ball on 4th and 99. She has to make a play or she’s going to jail. And the investors will try to strip every single dime. And probably succeed.
This is a very harsh punishment even if the beginning of the article misses the point."