Scam Me

This week brought the viewers of Netflix some new scam artists to ponder over in both fiction and non fictional accounts – The Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna. The former about a con artist who dated largely Northern European women scamming gorgeous young women via Tinder, taking them out for expensive dates/trips and then leaving them with the bill and naturally, heartbreak. Inventing Anna is a fictional account of a true person with shape shifting abilities in both name and demeanor, profiled in both Vanity Fair and The New York Magazine. During her time in New York she stiffed a few folks and hotels in her wake of pursuing a real identity, that may or may not have any fact or actual concept, but seemed good on paper, if she could manage to find said paper.

They are in a long line of hustler/swindlers who conned the rich out of bucks to fund their Music Festival, their personal wealth and business, the pleasure of the con, the art world, the real estate business, their start ups, their trade, and anywhere and everywhere cons and more importantly their marks exist. Listen to the podcast about Siegfried and Roy and you may find yourself thinking that maybe playing with Tigers is a curse, right Tiger King? Or how about Dirty John? There are dozens of podcasts about many who have been conned, tricked, manipulated and murdered in search of money, love or fame.

Hasn’t everyone at one point been conned out of something be it pussy or cash in pursuit of both pussy or cash, or dick, depending on which way the con swings. I have and I learned the hard way. And yes I was lucky as my credit or earnings were not overtly affected. I have been conned twice, once for love/dick, the other in search of housing. The first one I won’t get into detail as it was too long ago to care, but it was worth the price of the plane ticket to get this garbage out of my house and with that I lost a couple of grand and had some charges wiped, but most I paid. I do consider the drugging and near killing me a partial con, but the reality of that was it was a crime and it was without consent and knowledge so I elect to call it what it was, attempted robbery and murder. A con is when you have the ability to go along with the predator. And then again those too can turn nefarious, Jeffrey Epstein anyone?

But other con was just a basic one and was just a few years ago in Nashville, go figure home of the con. My apartment lease was terminated due to the property being sold and turned into condos and I needed temporary housing. The property I found for a temp lease was a fraud, not uncommon in these days; however I paid via PayPal using my American Express card as security. As one watches both the Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna, that is one company that comes out with four stars!! They were right on the case and yes I filed useless Police charges and harassed PayPal for their inability to actually vet and verify accounts but it was AMEX who saved me. I ended up fine, but now as I have said repeatedly, come after my pussy or my money we gots problems.

I was listening to the Juicy Scoop podcast by Heather McDonald and she discussed her dating a con who took her for a couple of grand. He did his via a rental car issue after dating her for a few weeks and she knew immediately that something was wrong and found the car and paid the bill. It takes only one and that should be enough. But for many thousands goes into the larger numbers you have to wonder how good that dick or pussy is?

But with the pandemic taking over our lives in a world already soused with the cologne of social media, we can smell our happiness right through our screens. Or not. What.ever. But the FOMO culture, the Millennial neediness to be cool and that is one factor that both Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna show in spades with the Instagramming of their every fucking movement, next up our bowel movement, further demonstrates the insatiable pettiness and self loathing one possesses in which to document their every move.

And stories about the endless cons and manipulations of those online fraudsters and those who do manage to make it to meet in person became another show itself, Love Fraud, who not only conned the women, he married them! And this group was neither young or wealthy, and not living on the coasts, but the heartland of America. Again, we think all this shit we have outgrown, this says, no, not really.

So natch I found this article on Twitter about the victims of the swindlers and how often they are in fact women, usually impressed with money, and with that in fact all of Anna’s victims were her peers, she defined influencer with throwing about cash to the staff and personnel who served her, conning those who had no life or identity and in were in search of one as well. She never succeeded in getting into the doors of the rich and famous as she aspired, there is where a Madoff succeeds, being male and well connected pays off, women still pay with pussy then charge the work they need to secure entry to said pussy on their own credit. Either/or we lose when it comes to finding dick, we always pay!

The expression, too good to be true, has a point. But loneliness, isolation and the lack of connection to anyone takes a toll. If I found people interesting I would feel that way but it takes only one dip into that pond when I recall the asshole from Ireland, (yes the Irish are born con artists) and the asshole who drugged me, enabled me to get into a car and nearly die, forcing me to fight not only for my life but the truth, to realize there is no man capable of being a presence in my life. That was taken without my consent and at least if I handed the cash over with knowledge as I did with the Irish lad a decade earlier, I might have been able to tell the tale with some laughter but I cannot. This is what online dating does. It takes a life away, sometimes literally. Again I was lucky. I have now eight lives left so fuck off I have no interest in testing that again.

Fuck the Rich

I watch the Real Housewives of New York, Orange County and of course, Beverly Hills. The arrival of Kathy Hilton this year to the posse of crazy rich bitches has been of course star making and overshadowing some of the shit surrounding Erika Jayne/Girardi and her legal woes, but not enough to actually make them go away which Erika seems determined to not do. Anyone in her position would shut their mouths, hire a crisis team and go on the down low but nope this is a woman in a full blown mental health breakdown as she watches all that she had fall away and out of her grasp and control. She may have been married to a mean man who cheated but he funded her lifestyle, her attempt at show biz and allowed her son to have a home and find a career in Law Enforcement, so it wasn’t all that bad all the time and anyone in a marriage gets the highs and the lows but a private plane can make those lows seem less so, no?

So the debate of what Erika knew and when she knew it means that she had a working well established communication with her soon to be addled ex and understood the financials and books and how exactly Tom ran his business. See the Murdaugh family in South Carolina if you want to understand the complexities of being a rich Attorney and running the family business that is intertwined with the personal business. Not the first nor the last. Ask Bernie Madoff and family. Oh they are all dead. All of them.Well Ruth is the last of that dynamic and she is 80 so death will eventually be the final act. Rich only takes you so far.

We choose to believe, we choose to know and we choose to lie or tell the truth. That is what free will and the ability to live in a time when we have many choices in which make said decisions that can be life altering. To Tell the Truth was a game show back in the day and today we all seem to have a very flexible definition of truth or to quote another liar, “alternative facts,” in which to explain, justify or excuse.

I do believe Social Media has enabled if not encouraged the ability to lie, to exaggerate and to postulate nonsense difficult to vet. But even the rich seem to have problems doing their due diligence when it comes to verification and validation of information presented to them in pursuit of more riches. See the Theranos trial of Elizabeth Holmes and my personal favorite testimony this week of the DeVos family money manager who admitted she did little to verify all the claims Elizabeth made regarding her amazing blood testing machine. I mean if all these other rich and famous people are investing then I need to too and sure enough the former idiot once the Secretary of Education in the Trump years actually doubled down in her pursuit of greed. Not very smart there Betsey. But she was one of many who seemed to jump on that bandwagon without so much as asking to see a bank balance. And funny Mad Dog General Maddox another. Wow the Trump connection is not lost on me as they seem to define Grifter family as well. Makes you wonder if anyone ever in power is intelligent and worthy or just lucky. They are only just two examples of former Cabinet Secretary’s seduced by Ms. Holmes. Ah and with that Mort Sahl died this week, he makes Dave Chappelle seem amateur when it comes to taking no prisoners. I wonder what he would have said about this entourage of the wealthy, greedy and stupid. Watch for it on BRAVO!

And with this I bring up the Hilton family name and their dynamic. Paris is back in the news as well you cannot keep a good Hilton down for long. She is finally marrying, had a cooking show on Netflix and is having another attempt at a reality show about said wedding prep in which to keep the flame alight. Maybe they should bring back, I Want to be a Hilton? Oh don’t remember that show? It was Kathy’s first attempt at reality and had way less favorable reviews than her current guest appearance on the Housewives franchise. But Kyle does show up on this one for a guest appearance.

I recommend. watching that show on YouTube as the entire series is there in which to remind yourself that being a Hilton seems to be largely sleeping your way into society and making sure you breed to tie yourself to that family and wealth for live. Sonja Morgan of New York seems to be a lower rent version with more stories tied to her behavior and mental health problems in a new book about the franchise and the women, Not all Diamonds and Rose by Dave Quinn. Cannot wait to read it once I finish the out of print version of the Hilton book. I bought my copy on Thrift Books for 45 bucks it is now 85. Get it while IT’S HOT. Ah yes a nod to Paris who just won’t ever go away.

Oh Contrary

One must avoid snobbery and misanthropy. But one must also be unafraid to criticise those who reach for the lowest common denominator, and who sometimes succeed in finding it. This criticism would be effortless if there were no “people” waiting for just such an appeal. Any fool can lampoon a king or a bishop or a billionaire. A trifle more grit is required to face down a mob, or even a studio audience that has decided it knows what it wants and is entitled to get it. And the fact that kings and bishops and billionaires often have more say than most in forming appetites and emotions of the crowd is not irrelevant, either.” – Christopher Hitchens

I am a contrarian by nature, I ask questions, don’t accept the first answer given and often do my own research and come up with the answer prior to asking said questions in my way to out those to whom I feel don’t. In some ways it affirms my own perception and beliefs, that is the self-fulfilling prophecy in action, but it also gives me an opportunity to hear someone out and in turn look into that perspective further. It may not change my mind but it does open it. But we now in the age of social media are a tribal lot, we prefer to seek out those of like minds, who agree with us and affirm our beliefs are right and everyone else is wrong. And when we disagree we don’t argue on fact and figure we argue on personal and diabolical. We in other words launch into ad hominem attacks and physically threaten or doxx people by providing real life info such as addresses and places of employment to further bring harm. Sounds sane, no, not really.

I sadly am a misanthrope as I have given up finding the nature of people willing to learn and as a Teacher I am fully comfortable saying that. I know few adults who read anything, anything. And as I just started posting on my Substack account, Hate Male, I decided to make that site one that talks only about sex and not in salient way, but more about what it means to have sex and the repercussions of it. Sex sells. Maybe.

And with that I am a Contrarian and I appreciate the willingness of those who like Hitchens thought outside the box and was willing to push boundaries. We have lost a strong voice and with that loss we all lose. But I do not think it was deliberate or intentional to do damage, it was to shake limbs of trees, to open the thought process that not all things are as they appear. His vitriol about the vaunted Mother Teresa have since been supported that she was not as virtuous and generous as appeared, was a dogmatic bitch who did do harm in her quest to do right. Shocking! I know, not really. But when you do as such you are immediately ostracized and “canceled” for being a horrible negative person. What.ever. What comes from this is tragic on some levels and some can simply recover or move on but for many not so much. I am not sure what you do when your livelihood is taken from you, you are ostracized from the community and given the scarlet C as a moniker that makes others distance themselves in fear of being also labeled as an enabler and in turn also canceled. It is a circle of hate. With that I read this great article (WHAT READING???) in The Atlantic, The New Puritans, about our new social mores and the problems that it has created as we move into a post pandemic society.

In that article he mentions the former Science writer for the New York Times, Donald McNeil, who was terminated for using the “N” word, a word so troublesome we cannot even write it on a page or use it in speech to discuss its significance or relevance in culture. Yet it is used on the streets as a superlative and demonstrative all the time in the same culture that was once derided by it, so explain that to me. And do I want someone to address me as Bitch or Cunt as I have no problem using those words to explain myself or in fact label others? Gosh let’s start just saying “B” and “C” from now on. And we already know that Faggot is no longer allowed, just ask Matt Damon about even discussing it as a word he used in context to explain how he examined such names even in jest were damaging. Ah yes words about women will always stand up as fine I guess. Or not. What.ever.

I read Mr. McNeils Medium pages as his insight into the pandemic are critical to understanding the current state of global affairs about vaccines, the virus origins and other hot bed issues. Another I do read is Alec Berenson’s Substack, who is perhaps the most vitriolic former New York Times reporters when it comes to Covid. Where we disagree is the anti vaxx position he takes as it is loaded with errors and extrapolated facts he uses to misinform and support his views. The man is an outstanding writer and he has a voice but he chooses a megaphone that is just loudly out of balance, Mr. McNeil, no. One is cantankerous the other just a asshole who is smart and uses it to do damage. The one thing we agree on is that Fauci is the worst mouthpiece that the two Administrations needed to muzzle. So see, sometimes you find a position where you can agree, note, I sad SOMETIMES. But with Mr. Berenson he was also a profile in The Atlantic and there is little I disagree with when it comes to that portrayal. Balance is the key to life and as a Libra I constantly seek balance. And when all else fails I read (READING AGAIN???) Fact Check.org where I can also find some facts that are failed to mention when it comes to statements made by anyone on either side of the political spectrum. Not an easy gig, as Snopes as found out. Irony that Buzz Feed which still thinks it is an alternative medium to the mainstream kind. That worked out as one of the founders now works for where? The New York Times.

And because I read and read a great deal of news and in turn listen to news via NPR I have the time to ask the questions, seek out the information need to hear all sides of the story. I have a better understanding now of the FDA’s approval of the Covid vaccine that is not the current one being administrated and why it is not available. Understanding the complicated nature of drug production and manufacturing allows for the problems that Johnson and Johnson faced when they had a facility who had no expertise or knowledge to manufacture this drug, had a facility already plagued with problems and now put to use to actually work it tanked. Again had the New York Times NOT exposed that information the damage done to the vaccines, to people who were given them could have been serious and with emergency declaration the liability is waived. So it was a lose lose but it was a conventional mainstream press that exposed it through the due diligence of investigative reporting that did so. The same way that The Wall Street Journal through the work of John Carreyrou exposed the fraud of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos whose trial began this week.

It was a conventional reporter, John DeRogatis, who doggedly pursued the R. Kelly abuse and assaults of women that have finally placed Mr. Kelly under arrest and being prosecuted for Sex Trafficking in federal court when conventional court failed the first time. He too was derided and dismissed as we now learn not wrong, thanks to the dozens of enablers that protected and in fact covered the abuse of dozens of girls and boys under the hands of R. Kelly. Follow the money and as the trial of Robert Durst is ongoing in Los Angeles one wonders if in fact had the documentary, The Jinx, not been made would he be at all?

Contrarians fall under a large umbrella and within that comes an agenda and of course a sense of need to find support and validation for the theory’s, ideas or belief’s they have. I have exhausted myself trying to explain just basic facts to adults and when I am not paid I have decided to refuse to do so. My desperation for any human contact and conversation became exhausted during the early days of the pandemic so I am shutting down and confining myself to writing finally a book. I decided to turn fact into fiction as I realized people have difficulty accepting facts and truths unless they believe in them. So something good came out of this. And for the first time in decades I want to put down roots, no compromise and with that comes the next phase of doing such, including finding work that does take me out of the house at least some of the time. Teaching? Maybe but with N-95 masks, doors and windows open as that is the most compromise I will do.

So read, be informed, be educated. Have an opinion that is your own that comes from a place of knowledge, including those that are not of the mainstream. They may help you come to that decision independently, maybe change your view or at least affirm it. Or not. Does it matter? Only to you and yours. And no those are not those voices in the empty room of social media.

Blame the Patriarchy

I wrote yesterday about how particularly White Feminism is in fact as judgmental, racist and discriminatory as any white supremacist group as they use their moral superiority to patronize and demoralize anyone who refuses to subscribe and follow the script. The lack of diverse voices ( a wide swath largely of class and color) and of course voices that offer disagreement (see the current issues about Times Up) often enable, if not further, the belief that the sole course of action is right. And largely is that it is all about gender and in turn believing that one gender is morally superior over another. See the White Supremacist similarity? And with that women of color, women who are not American born are often equally subjugated and dismissed with regards to their complaints, blaming said failures on again intrinsic behaviors and not extrinsic factors that block access. What is the untold secret is that many of these women who have attained a place or position of authority that they did not bypass traditional pathways, networks, or accomplish said success without (usually) a white male mentor who either fucked them, or had some type of father dynamic in place in which to foster and develop the relationship that enabled the same women to have both access and availability to powerful people and positions. There are some women who have made success without male influence but they also had a large cohort of other women who embraced and encouraged them, as one can look to the early days of Feminism that arose in the 60s, much like Civil Rights it is a movement over a cause that enables if not encourages it, but today there are few if any women who have not found their place in society secured by either marriage or from birth.

And this brings me to the story of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos fame and infamy. The story of her fraud and duplicity in rising the company to amazing heights gives illustration to the ability to con. This woman conned many successful and well known men and Betsey DeVos (not a challenge there intellectually as we have come to know) into investing into her company based on an idea. This is the foundation of the Valley, the BIG IDEA, which in many cases are often just BIG LIES passed off as ideas and plans, see Adam Neumann of We Work as another example of this kind of P.T. Barnum bullshit in the land of cash and gravy. But the road to riches is paved with lies and exaggerations, and of course, men chest thumping and dick swinging. And then came Elizabeth with her contrived deep voice, blonde hair and black turtlenecks it was still easy being a child who extrinsically demonstrated the idea of white privilege and still now breaking the glass ceiling that someone less glamorous like say, Hillary Clinton, failed to do. But she managed to do it and for awhile rode that ride like a child at a carnival. And then it was a man, a man from the Wall Street Journal who began to ask questions thanks to another young man and a young woman who too had questions and they began to blow some whistles. But this kind of shit can only be covered up so long before the stink rises and we have seen this with many men of late, Scott Rudin, Andrew Cuomo come to mind, but this is still toxic regardless of who shat it. But what is fascinating is how they never admitted guilt or truly apologized they just retreated and we await to see their inevitable return or not, hey whatever.

But, today as she is prepping for her trial, Elizabeth’s success ladder has collapsed and now in an attempt at redemption is doing what anyone does best in these times, BLAME SOMEONE ELSE. Ah yes that is always a good idea and saying one is a victim of domestic violence is a good defense when any other possible one has been exhausted. Not only is it tragic, this is a horrific notion that further pushes women back into the professional closet. We are either fucking our way to the top or being raped while at the bottom, it is an either/or neither/nor choice that only once again seems to validate the idea that women are stupid manipulative bitches. One of these days Alice!

Elizabeth Holmes expected to argue she suffered abuse from ex-boyfriend during Theranos trial

Unsealed documents in the high-profile case that begins with jury selection Aug. 31 include accusations against Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani of “essentially dominating her and erasing her capacity to make decisions.”

By Jay Greene and Rachel Lerman The Washington Post August 29, 2021

Former Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes is likely to argue in her criminal trial that abuse by her ex-boyfriend, who was the company’s president, rendered her incapable of making her own decisions, according to documents unsealed in the case early Saturday morning.

Holmes, who started Theranos when she was a 19-year-old student at Stanford University, is charged with 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly defrauding investors and patients in connection to her failed blood-testing firm. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Aug. 31, with the trial starting Sept. 8.

The unusual defense strategy in one the highest-profile corporate trials in years offers clearer details on how Holmes plans to frame the implosion of a company that was once one of the industry’s start-up darlings. Holmes graced magazine covers and regularly appeared on business television programs while Theranos took in hundreds of millions of dollars from household-name investors such as Rupert Murdoch and Betsy DeVos. But her fall, after a 2015 Wall Street Journal investigation showed the company’s technology was unreliable, led to the many claims of fraud.

Several of the newly unsealed documents relate to the successful efforts by Holmes’s ex-boyfriend, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, to separate his trial from hers. Holmes’s plans to argue intimate partner violence as a defense would prevent him from receiving a fair trial if the cases were joined, Balwani’s lawyers argued in the documents.

One unsealed Balwani filing from February notes the strategy: “Ms. Holmes plans to introduce evidence that Mr. Balwani verbally disparaged her and withdrew ‘affection if she displeased him’; controlled what she ate, how she dressed, how much money she could spend, who she could interact with — essentially dominating her and erasing her capacity to make decisions.”

Holmes’s lawyers introduced the possible defense in December, noting that it might call an expert witness to testify about “whether and how Ms. Holmes’ relationship with Mr. Balwani was consistent with intimate partner abuse,” and also attest to “Ms. Holmes’ particular vulnerability to an abusive relationship.” In a separate filing, Holmes’s lawyers note that it is “highly likely” Holmes will introduce evidence of “intimate partner abuse.”

Holmes’s filings provide some detail into her allegations of abuse. She alleges that Balwani monitored her calls, texts and email messages, that he threw “hard, sharp objects” at her, and that he restricted her sleep and monitored her movements, among other charges.ADVERTISING

In his legal response, Balwani’s lawyers disputed Holmes’s abuse claims, arguing they are “deeply offensive to Mr. Balwani, devastating personally to him, and highly and unfairly prejudicial to his defense of this case.”

The filings also answer a question about which has been widely speculated, whether Holmes will testify in her own defense, something that often is a perilous legal strategy because it opens a defendant up to cross-examination by prosecutors. The apparent answer is yes.

“Ms. Holmes is likely to testify herself to the reasons why she believed, relied on, and deferred to Mr. Balwani,” according to one of her legal filings in February.

Court documents had previously indicated that Holmes was evaluated by a psychologist who specializes in violence against women and interpersonal violence, leading to speculation that her attorneys could mount a so-called “mental defect” defense. The government also asked, and was granted, the chance to have Holmes evaluated by medical professionals they appointed.https://85c90c650def3b002604d56bc0e8515c.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

The documents were unsealed after a lawyer for Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, asked the court to make them public. Balwani’s lawyers opposed the unsealing, and Holmes’s lawyers asked the judge to wait longer before making them public.

Balwani was initially charged with Holmes, but the two later had their cases separated. His trial is scheduled to begin in January. The unsealed documents also show that Balwani requested to be tried first. And they show that the government opposed severing the trial.

Theranos attempted to develop miniature lab technology, which sometimes was called the “Edison,” that could quickly and inexpensively run hundreds of tests from just a couple of drops of blood collected after pricking a finger. But investigations led by reporting from the Journal revealed severe dysfunction within the young company and technology that was erratic and unreliable.

Theranos was actually using traditional lab equipment, made by outside companies, to run most tests, the Journal’s reporting showed. And scientists within the company were uneasy about how often the company’s machine seemed to give unreliable results.

Holmes launched Theranos in 2003 and grew it to about 800 employees and a valuation of $9 billion before it ultimately collapsed in 2018. In a chaotic period after the Journal’s bombshell reports were published, partners including Safeway and Walgreens dissolved deals with the company.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees clinical labs, found deficiencies at the company’s lab. Theranos eventually settled with the agency and agreed not to operate any clinical labs for two years. Holmes also settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over fraud allegations, and was barred from serving as a director or officer of a public company for a decade.

Judge Edward J. Davila, of the federal court in the Northern District of California, said during a hearing Thursday that he thought it wise to unseal the documents before potential jurors are brought in to be questioned next week. That way, lawyers could ask them if they had seen any recent media coverage of the case, he said.

Holmes’s lawyers had asked that the unsealing be delayed until after jurors had been chosen and directed not to read media items.

Bye Felicia

I cannot say I am sorry about this one in the least.  I suspect there are more trees in the woods that will make sound as the excessive almost exuberant evaluations over the new”ly” and other apps that are changing the world, or not, eventually crash to the ground when we find they have root rot. Theranos was an enigma, wrapped in a riddle of dead Steve Jobs turtlenecks.

Theranos will close labs and wellness centers, laying off hundreds of employees
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
The Washington Post
October 5 at 9:46 PM

Elizabeth Holmes, the embattled founder and chief executive of Theranos, said late Wednesday that the company will close its clinical labs and wellness centers. The open letter, posted on the company’s website, was essentially an epitaph for the consumer business that was the focus of the once-celebrated Silicon Valley company that Holmes boasted would change the world with its simple and inexpensive pinprick blood test.

In magazine interviews, TV appearances and keynote speeches she gave around the world, Holmes said the innovation would empower consumers by giving them the ability to bypass the gatekeepers — their doctors — to get important information about the health of their own bodies. Numerous investors and consumers fell for her story, and at one point the company was valued at $9 billion, making Holmes the youngest self-made female billionaire ever.

But as the company grew, so did questions about its technology. In a series of skeptical reports starting in October 2015, the Wall Street Journal recounted how even Theranos’s own employees questioned the accuracy of the results of its testing and revealed that government regulators had been looking into the matter.

The company aggressively defended itself against the accusations but over the summer acknowledged major defeats. In June, Walgreens said it had terminated its partnership with the blood testing start-up effective immediately. In July, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services imposed harsh sanctions against Theranos, imposing a fine, revoking its certificate for a lab and banning Holmes from owning, operating or directing a blood-testing lab for at least two years.

The move will affect about 340 employees in Arizona, California and Pennsylvania, and Holmes was generous in recognizing them for sticking by her.

“We are profoundly grateful to these team members, many of whom have devoted years to Theranos and our mission, for their commitment to our company and our guests,” she wrote.

Holmes said the company will now focus its “undivided attention” on the Theranos miniLab platform which she described as a product that would be “miniaturized, automated laboratories capable of small-volume sample testing, with an emphasis on vulnerable patient populations, including oncology, pediatrics, and intensive care.”