
Theranos and David Boies Cut Legal Ties - dbcooper
http://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-and-david-boies-cut-legal-ties-1479514351
======
downandout
Lawyers are typically among the last to jump ship from corporate disasters,
since they stand to gain the most from them. Usually they only do so when they
don't think they will be paid, they have been asked by the company to do
something unethical, or when they believe that their actions during the
company's downfall may expose their own firm to liability. In this case it may
be a combination of the three, but whatever happened, Theranos is toast and I
suspect Elizabeth Holmes will be very lucky if she does not spend some time in
prison over this.

~~~
micaksica
> Theranos is toast and I suspect Elizabeth Holmes will be very lucky if she
> does not spend some time in prison over this.

An elite, highly politically connected, young, blonde, Caucasian woman will
not spend time in prison for a dubious charge of white collar crime. There is
little to no hope of that in today's society, regardless of how damaging her
actions are.

Edit: I'd love to be proven wrong on this comment, but I don't have much faith
that this will ever come to happen. It is laughable to think that the American
justice system is actually neutral across races or socioeconomic lines. Also,
I agree that Theranos is toast. I just think it will try to become toast
somewhat quietly.

~~~
downandout
It's called fraud, and she defrauded and embarrassed many of the people she is
"connected" to. Despite your assertion to the contrary, many white people have
gone to jail for fraud. I also don't think there is much behind-the-scenes
lobbying happening on her behalf (in fact there may be some lobbying _against_
her).

~~~
ecorealist
Yes, many white people have gone to prison, but it has taken enormous and
egregious cases for that to happen. Usually, a brown or other disliked
minority fall-person will go to jail and to quell public outrage.

Consider the 2008 crisis, yes some white Americans went to jail, but the major
(only?) prosecution at Goldman Sachs for example was
[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrice_Tourre](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrice_Tourre)
Were his emails damning? Yes, but lets not pretend he was anything but the
most low-level fall guy, conveniently with a heavy french accent -- Americans
love to hate him. Also, Rajat Gupta and Raj Rajaratnam were certainly dirty,
but their prosecution was the highest profile one post-2008 and it was more an
insider trading case, not actually going after CDO fraud. No one at AIG-FP or
Goldman Sachs got prosecuted, almost none got prosecuted anywhere.

Flash Crash -- lets find a young Indian guy and blame it on him.
[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-flash-
cr...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-flash-crash-trader-
who-made-40m-from-his-bedroom-will-be-extradited-a7361706.html) Nevermind that
spoofing is a widespread industry practice in America...

Prosecutors will go after easy cases AND those that quell public calls for
blood. Holmes does not "look" criminal to the typical American, so I bet she
walks away -- your average voter/citizen would not be happy if she goes to
prison. My bet is a lower-level Chinese/Indian/Mexican(!) or some other
minority goes to jail for this. They may well be guilty so I wont argue it is
cooked-up or anything, but likely wont be the actual [white] person at the
top.

~~~
edblarney
"Consider the 2008 crisis, yes some white Americans went to jail, but the
major (only?) "

The 2008 crises was not built on outright fraud by most of the banks.

They didn't commit any crimes for the most part.

Individuals lied on their applications, bank managers overlooked it, VP of
Mortgage Sales for banks didn't want to hear about underperforming loans,
ratings agencies didn't want to due proper due dilligence, German and Japanese
banks buying the crap were too lazy to do any due diligence ... and it came
down.

There was 'systematic, greed, stupidity and irresponsibility' across the board
- home buyers included.

It was not caused by some cabal of bankers specifically doing something
illegal.

~~~
CalChris
> The 2008 crises was not built on outright fraud by most of the banks. ... It
> was not caused by some cabal of bankers specifically doing something
> illegal.

That is not true.

 _Why Only One Top Banker Went to Jail for the Financial Crisis_

[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/magazine/only-one-top-
bank...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/magazine/only-one-top-banker-jail-
financial-crisis.html)

~~~
ecorealist
Thanks for posing this article. Kareem Serageldin was certainly guilty but
actually goes to strengthen my original argument -- it is rare to find Arab
financiers on Wall St, it is telling that the one prosecution on the 2008 CDO
disaster _is an Arab guy!_

------
w1ntermute
If you haven't read it, the previous article in the WSJ Theranos series, on
the original whistleblower, is a riveting read[0]. I can't wait to see how
this is portrayed on the big screen[1].

0: [http://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-whistleblower-shook-
the...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-whistleblower-shook-the-
companyand-his-family-1479335963)

1: [http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/06/jennifer-
lawrenc...](http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/06/jennifer-lawrence-
theranos-elizabeth-holmes)

~~~
MengerSponge
A particularly relevant note from that: Shultz emailed Holmes directly,
blowing her plausible deniability right out the window, probably.

------
pseingatl
Classic conflict of interest: Boies was not only the company's counsel, he was
a director and his firm was a shareholder, his partner was Theranos' general
counsel. The interests of the firm were to keep Theranos operating as a going
concern, keep the contract with Walgreens, stop the federal investigation
(Madoff and the SEC anyone?) and keep the money flowing. His partners'
ambushing a suspected whistleblower was thuggery. Theranos was a Madoff-type
operation because everyone thought that a former head of NASDAQ with a
blackbox split/strike conversion strategy couldn't possibly be a fraudster.
Theranos had a contract with Walgreens, was approved by Medicare, was a
billion dollar company--how could it possibly be a snake oil vendor? But he
was and they were. Boies tried to keep the game running as long as he could
and who knows, maybe he drank the Theranos Kool-Aid as well, but now it is
obvious that there's no there there and Theranos is doomed.

------
sidi
Google link to read the full article:
[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi4k6e_3MLQAhUr04MKHSAtA7MQFgggMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Ftheranos-
and-david-boies-cut-legal-
ties-1479514351&usg=AFQjCNEMvPo1d3t1sfzJcPyAoC2Yk0FSDw&sig2=C0IfzcuiU8Zjd1yy-
st7Lw)

~~~
RickS
tip: the "web" link underneath the title does this automatically

~~~
fuzzfactor
observation: the "web" link underneath the title appears intended to do this
automatically

performance report: the "web" links usually fail (as in this case) completely
when needed most no matter how much time you waste trying, but sidi's link
works ideally instantly. Using a Tor browser.

~~~
curiousgal
I t didn't work on CHrome as well but opening it in an incognito window made
it work for me.

------
bitwize
If David Boies -- Mr. SCO v. IBM -- cuts ties with you, that's a serious mic
drop against your credibility as a company.

------
debt
it's unfortunate theranos didn't pan out. seems like a technology capable of
what was claimed would be incredibly beneficial for diabetics.

~~~
foobarian
Don't diabetics already have testing tech that works off tiny pinpricks? IIRC
the holy grail for diabetics is testing without drawing blood.

~~~
SilasX
Correct. Diabetics are only checking for a very narrow metric (glucose levels
IIUIC), which is not very sensitive to interference from surface skin cells.
That doesn't hold for most of the other things that Theranos was trying to
make a test for.

