Bad Blood

Yes. Carreyrou's 2015 Wall Street Journal investigation directly exposed Theranos's fraudulent practices to the public. Elizabeth Holmes was later convicted on multiple counts of fraud and sentenced to prison in 2022.

Theranos raised approximately $700 million from investors and was once valued at $9 billion. This valuation made Elizabeth Holmes briefly the youngest self-made female billionaire according to Forbes, a title that was revoked after Carreyrou's reporting.

The 2018 book provides far more investigative detail about internal deception and the employees who tried to speak up, drawn from Carreyrou's extensive interviews. Alex Gibney's 2019 HBO documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley offers compelling visuals but covers less narrative ground.

Theranos claimed its Edison machines could run hundreds of tests from a single finger-prick blood drop, but the technology never worked reliably. The company was secretly running most tests on traditional commercial analyzers from companies like Siemens.