Why Chinese scammers use the Theranos model to carry out their cryptocurrency scams
Elizabeth Holmes — when evidence fails, leverage testosterone
Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of Theranos, used a simple but time-tested technique for fraud. As brilliantly detailed by John Carreyrou in the definitive story of the sage, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, she stacked her executive board with powerful men who knew nothing about biotech. They were also enamored by her blonde looks and personality.
The Theranos board of directors read like a listing of the most powerful men in the world. Looking at the board members’ names, one would think it was for a Fortune 50 firm, not a stealth-mode startup. Board members included the then most powerful litigator in the US, David Boies, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, General James’ Mad Dog’ Mattis, retired Senator Sam Nunn, and more.
Many investors who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Theranos did so as the board of directors was seen as men with sterling, larger-than-life images who gave Theranos a stamp of legitimacy.
The problem was that nearly the entire board consisted of older men with extensive government, diplomatic…
