Print
Category: A Little Bit from Elaine A Little Bit from Elaine
Published: 25 October 2021 25 October 2021

By Elaine Carlson

It is difficult for me to stop thinking about the Elizabeth Holmes Fraud Trail.

I have been getting antsy and I almost wish the proceedings were further along so I won't have to wait so long to learn how it turns out. I just hope she and her defense team are not the ones bringing out the champagne after the verdict is read.

For a short time I would like to pay less attention to Holmes and shift my focus to the shyster who according to Wikipedia defrauded thousands of investers out of a total of $64.8 billion in the largest ever Ponzi Scheme.

On March 12, 2009 the stock broker, investment adviser, and financer Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 felonies. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $170 billion.

He founded Bernard L. Investment Securities LLC in 1960. The Asset Management Division of his firm provided a front so he could commit fraud on such a massive scale.

He never bought any investments for the "investment fund" but kept all of the money in an interest bearing bank account. He took money out whenever people ordered withdrawals. While the market was up he got a lot of new investors which kept everything on course. But when the market went down his world fell apart.

He also withdrew a lot of the money for his own purposes. "60 Minutes" related how he and his family enjoyed a good life. I forget how many houses the program said they had – all luxurious in upscale neighborhoods. When authorities were working hard to locate and take possession of all of his property Madoff's wife argued that she needed money to live on. They let her keep $2.5 million.

There are a lot of differences between the crimes of Madoff and the accusations against Elizabeth Holmes. The first big difference that pops out when reading about the cases is that Holmes is being accussed of doing a much smaller fraud.

The prosecutors contend that Holmes and her partner Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani (her co-defendant – his trial will start after hers is over) defrauded investors of $700 million and sold worthless products for approximately $250 million. Before things blew up, their firm Paranos had an assessed valuation of $9 billion.

Holmes is well known for founding Theranos when she was 19 and now she is 37. If she is convicted and sentenced to prison for twenty years she can expect to still be relatively young when she gets out. Madoff was 50 when prosecutors contend he started doing his criminal activity. He was 70 when he pled quilty and went to prison (he died there when he was 82).

Elizabeth Holmes has always disputed the motion that she ever did anything wrong. Obviously when she knew she would be facing criminal charges she was careful to hire attorneys who would be willing and able to give her an aggressive defense. Madoff didn't assert any defense and pleaded guilty soon after being picked up and charged.

When I was scanning the news I saw on a search line, "Opinion NY Times: What Does Elizabeth Holmes Rise and Fall Mean … [October 3, 2021]." I was not surprised that after I did my click to see the missing words were For Women. The article is "I Used to Look Up to Elizabeth Holmes" by Lindsay Crouse.

The author starts by saying the intial reports of a woman dropping out of college and starting a business made her feel good. She said, "She broke into the exclusive club of Silicon Valley's boy wonders, not as an employee or even as an executive, but as a founder."

Crouse interviewed many women working for start ups. The people they approached to sell on the idea of investing in their start ups all wanted to talk about Elizabeth Holmes. And almost always they would follow up with a variation of the question "And how are you different?"

I am sure that difference between the experiences of Bernie Madoff and Elizabeth Holmes that matters the most is that one of them is a man and the other is a woman.

I am also sure that when most men approach potential investors their getting to know you conversations will be centered on a recent football game or another sporting event.