Biden played big role in promoting convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos

Holmes, now 37, and her longtime business partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were indicted in June 2018 for two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud. The jury for Holmes did not reach a verdict on three of the wire fraud charges and found her not guilty of a conspiracy to defraud patients and not guilty on three of the other wire fraud charges. Another count against Holmes was dropped.

Balwani’s trial is scheduled to begin later this month.

Theranos touted Biden’s July 23, 2015 visit to its headquarters in a lengthy press release, calling it “A New Era of Preventive Health Care” summit. Both the company and Biden repeatedly posted on Twitter about the event.

“Talk about being inspired,” Biden said at the time, though he turned down the chance to have his blood drawn. “This is inspiration. It is amazing to me, Elizabeth, what you’ve been able to do.”

Biden praised Theranos for “charging historically low prices” and making its supposedly game-changing diagnostic tools available to all.

An audio recording showed Holmes returning the flattery.

“It is an absolute privilege and a tremendous honor to have Vice President Biden here with us,” Holmes said in her opening remarks. “He is someone I so deeply respect and am so inspired by the context of his service to our country and the bold actions he has taken in service to our country throughout his career.”

Theranos said Biden joined Holmes on a tour of its “laboratory and manufacturing facility, seeing Theranos’ finger stick test and innovative test system, and meeting many of the company’s employees.” Much of what he saw was a sham.

The valuation of Theranos was pegged as high as $9 billion in 2014 and, since she owned 50% of the company, her net worth was as high as $4.5 billion — at least on paper.

Theranos’s sham unraveled publicly just a few months after Biden’s visit when an investigation by the Wall Street Journal’s John Carreyrou revealed that Theranos was misleading about its blood test technology and that the company was doing the vast majority of its tests with existing technology.

Biden’s praise for Holmes and her crooked company has not aged well. In his visit, Biden talked about his own aneurysm and his late son Beau Biden’s brain cancer as he praised Theranos.

Biden said he’d met Holmes a year prior when he’d spoken at a conference, and the Theranos founder had been sat next to him, saying, “I’ve been threatening Elizabeth for the last year that I’m going to come and see the operation and be shown around.”

“You get the sense that the whole medical complex and industry is on the cusp of some fundamental change that goes far beyond what encompasses what you’re doing here,” Biden told Holmes.

Biden made it clear that then-President Barack Obama was supportive of Theranos too.

“You know, the president and I, as I hope we’ve demonstrated, led by the president, share your vision of a new healthcare paradigm focused on preventive care,” Biden said.

Theranos highlighted that Biden had supported the company regarding its dealings with the Food and Drug Administration when he said, “The fact that you’re voluntarily submitting all of your tests to the FDA demonstrates your confidence in what you’re doing.”

Biden wasn’t the only high-profile person to get conned. Theranos board members included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Defense Secretary William Perry, former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn, former Republican Sen. Bill Frist, and former Trump Defense Secretary James Mattis.

A few days after Biden’s visit, the Obama White House’s YouTube channel posted a video of Holmes, with the description saying she spoke “about her Signature Initiative on empowering women in science, technology, mathematics and business.”

Holmes had been invited to a White House state dinner honoring Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in April 2015, with the event attended by the Obamas, the Bidens, and others.

Obama named Holmes a “Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship” in May 2015 and honored her and eight other new fellow PAGE honorees at a “Global Entrepreneurship” event on May 11.

The Theranos founder was a staunch ally of the Clinton family as well, appearing at multiple Clinton Foundation events onstage with former President Bill Clinton and campaigning with Chelsea Clinton at a March 2016 fundraiser.