Theranos Blood Testing Hoax

Elizabeth Holmes raised $700 million by promising the Edison device could run hundreds of tests from one drop of blood, but the technology never worked as claimed. Investors lost over $1 billion when the fraud collapsed, and Holmes was convicted of wire fraud in 2022. This hoax destroyed trust in biotech startups far more than Wirecard’s phantom billions, yet affected far fewer people than the 11 million cars rigged by Volkswagen.