On Friday, the young woman, pregnant, was sentenced to just over 11 years in prison after being found guilty in January of fraud by a court in San José, California.

After a four-month trial, jurors determined she "lied and cheated" to raise money, in the words of a prosecutor.

Elizabeth Anne Holmes, 38, has long been described as a visionary and a new Steve Jobs, a comparison encouraged by the black turtleneck this blonde with big blue eyes wore almost invariably, like the late founder of Apple.

Daughter of a parliamentary assistant and a former director at Enron - a group that sank into a huge fraud scandal - she was only 19 when she founded Theranos in 2003.

Like Steve Jobs, she had been admitted to the prestigious Stanford University, and like him, she quickly abandoned her studies.

She chooses to use the money set aside by her parents to finance the start-up of her start-up, based in Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Seduction

She then puts forward personal motivations: the sudden death of an uncle in whom no disease had previously been diagnosed.

“To me, nothing matters more than what people go through when someone they love gets really, really sick,” she said in a video on the Theranos website.

"The feeling of being helpless is heartbreaking and if I can build something to change that, that's what I want to do with my life."

His company promised faster and cheaper diagnoses than those of traditional laboratories, thanks to methods presented as revolutionary, allowing multiple tests with a very small amount of blood.

Jim Mattis, US Secretary of Defense from 2017 to 2019, arrives at the San Jose court to testify at the trial of Elizabeth Holmes, September 22, 2021 Glenn CHAPMAN AFP/Archives

Investors are seduced.

In 2014, Forbes valued Ms. Holmes' fortune at $4.5 billion and described her as the youngest female billionaire who did not inherit his fortune.

She was "intelligent, eloquent, determined", said during the trial Jim Mattis, a former American Minister of Defense, who served on the board of directors of Theranos, like former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Elizabeth Holmes personally puts the logos of pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer on official Theranos documents promoting its products, without the permission of the companies involved.

And keeps the various failures of its machines a secret.

But in 2015, the Wall Street Journal published a damning investigation, despite the leader's attempts to prevent its publication by appealing to Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the American daily and also an investor in Theranos.

"Little girl"

The articles reveal the unreliability of the start-up's technologies, which are only used for a small part of the more than 200 tests offered.

Theranos then multiplies the denials.

"That's what happens when you work to change things. First people think you're crazy and they fight you, and then suddenly you change the world," Elizabeth Holmes told CNBC.

During her trial, she continued to try to convince the jury of her good faith.

She also spoke about her relationship with Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, her ex-COO and partner.

Elizabeth Holmes arrives at San José court accompanied by her husband Billy Evans on September 8, 2021 Nick Otto AFP/Archives

She explained in particular that he controlled her closely, at work and at home, seeking to "shape" her into a new person, more masculine and less "little girl".

Now married and mother of an 18-month-old baby boy and pregnant with a second child, her story fascinated the American media, because she embodied a certain image of innovative Silicon Valley, before its decline.

© 2022 AFP