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Three months after the trial of disgraced tech CEO Elizabeth Holmes began, the case is currently on recess as closing arguments draw near.
Holmes, whose blood-testing startup Theranos was accused of engaging in fraudulent and dangerous activities, and her defense team rested their case on Wednesday. She had taken the stand and claimed that the suspicious and unethical conduct were bad business decisions rather than purposeful fraud. More than 30 people testified throughout the course of the trial, both in defense of and against Holmes.
The trial will be recessed for a week. According to U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, this recess was called "to allow time for refining the instructions to the jury in a complicated case" such as Holmes'. Once the recess is complete, closing arguments will begin, leaving the fate of the once-promising entrepreneur to the jury.
Holmes was indicted on two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud. She was charged alongside former chief operating officer and boyfriend Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, whose trial will begin in January 2022. While on the stand, she had accused him of sexual and emotional abuse.
"He impacted everything about who I was, and I don't fully understand that," she said in November. Newsweek previously reported that she had accused Balwani of forcing her to have sex with him after being berated, as well as having lengthy demands and expectations put upon her.
While on the stand on Wednesday, Holmes also said that Balwani was responsible for many of the company's business decisions since 2010 and neglected to fix significant issues with Theranos' blood-testing procedure. These methods were the subject of a series of Wall Street Journal articles that said that Theranos was purposefully misdiagnosing samples in 2015. The author of those articles, John Carreyrou, has been in attendance for the trial although he was not called to testify.
Closing arguments are currently scheduled for December 16 and 17. A jury of 10 men and 4 women will then deliberate Holmes' fate.
The abrupt end of the defense's case came as somewhat of a surprise. Holmes' lawyers had indicated that they might call on a psychologist to discuss the allegations of emotional and sexual abuse Holmes had raised against Balwani. Holmes was just one of the three witnesses to testify for the defense, but she spent more than 25 hours on the stand since she was sworn November 19.
The decision to let Holmes herself have the last word may have been an indication that her lawyers believed she did a compelling job telling her story. Or they may have feared that the psychological experts that prosecutors intended to call—if the defense called theirs—might undermine their case.
Before Theranos melted down, Holmes and Balwani raised more than $900 million from a list of billionaire investors that included media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the Walton family behind Walmart. It also assembled a board of directors that included former Cabinet members ranging from the Nixon to Trump administrations.
Jeffrey Coopersmith, Balwani's attorney, has vehemently denied Holmes' attempts to blame him for Theranos' downfall, as well as the allegations of partner abuse. He told Davila that Balwani would exercise his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if he were called to testify during Holmes' trial. Balwani is facing similar fraud charges in a trial scheduled to start next month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
