Customers who received false test results from Elizabeth Holmes’ defunct health company Theranos will be able to testify at the ex-CEO’s criminal wire fraud trial this upcoming fall.
U.S. District Judge, Edward J. Davila, denied a motion by Holmes’ attorneys on Wednesday that would have prevented her disgruntled customers from speaking at the trial.
Theranos, founded by Holmes in 2003, claimed it built a machine that could run hundreds of blood tests using only a few droplets. However, the company collapsed in 2015 after a Wall Street Journal investigation uncovered it was built on a series of lies that cost investors millions of dollars.
The Securities and Exchange Commission indicted Holmes, 37, in 2018 on a dozen felony fraud counts, for which she could serve a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of more than $2.5 million.
Holmes’ attorney’s argued that allowing patient testimony would violate due process, according to BuzzFeed. They said a company database with millions of test results was given to prosecutors, but investigators weren’t able to use it because they weren’t given the encryption key to open the evidence. As a result, the attorneys said the prosecutors failed to preserve the evidence, which could have shown accurate test results.
However, the judge refuted their argument.
"It could just as likely contain incriminating evidence to the contrary," Davila wrote. "Any exculpatory value is therefore speculative in nature."
The judge’s decision on Wednesday could be vital to the case. According to court filings and BuzzFeed, prosecutors said patients' testimony “will greatly assist the jury in making their findings about the falsity of Defendant’s statements, (Holmes') knowledge of their falsity, and her intent to defraud patients in general."
After multiple delays, Holmes’ trial is scheduled to begin on August 31.
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