The CEO, Rishi Shah, was a major rising star and was profiled by the Wall Street Journal in 2017. The journalist on the story thought something seemed fishy and started pulling threads, leading to an expose published in October of that year.
Such is the conundrum with the WSJ. The op-ed section is beyond parody at this point (see the recent article attempting to pin SVB's collapse on 'wokeness'). But at least the journalists remain committed to digging into stories.
The Theranos fraud was also discovered by a WSJ journalist who wasn't wowed by their ex-Pentagon and Beltway board members and puff pieces written about Holmes.
Yup, I get so mad at WSJ after reading one of their really stupid opinion pieces and then their real journalists will publish something really good. Almost like an abusive relationship. The FT is good but doesn’t always dig out the dirt like WSJ does (in the US).
Ironically, WSJ is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who invested $100 million in Theranos. According to the famous book, Bad Blood, Elizabeth Holmes tried to get Murdoch to kill the story but he refused.
Ironic indeed. Surprisingly ethical behavior from Murdoch - I wouldn't have expected such a person to take that kind of a hit on his $100 million investment.
Forbes 30 Under 30 has a similar issue... I think over the last 10-15 years, people featured in that list have been convicted or accused of scamming more money than they've made, including Elizabeth Holmes, SBF and at least a couple more.
It would be fascinating to see the full numbers on this statement. Almost sounds like an ideal arbitrage opportunity - just short the 30 under 30 list and profit!
The Theranos fraud was also discovered by a WSJ journalist who wasn't wowed by their ex-Pentagon and Beltway board members and puff pieces written about Holmes.