Carreyrou, Bad Blood

On Friday Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, and its former president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were criminally charged with wire fraud. These charges came three months after the SEC sued Holmes and Theranos for a “massive fraud” at the company.

John Carreyrou, a lauded investigative reporter at the Wall Street Journal who covered Theranos extensively from 2015 on, has written a spine-chilling book, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (Alfred A. Knopf, 2018).

It’s hard to imagine, amid all the suspicions, firings, and general upheaval, that Theranos got away with its alleged fraud for as long as it did. It was the persona of Elizabeth Holmes (along later on with some heavy legal fire power) that kept it going, that attracted big dollars from normally savvy investors and big names to the company board, that convinced companies such as Safeway and Walgreens to offer Theranos’s flawed finger-stick blood tests (although they later pulled back). People were bewitched by her “mixture of charm, intelligence, and charisma.” They didn’t see her much less flattering side.

Put Bad Blood at the top of your summer reading list. You won’t regret it