SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — Two whistleblowers who helped blow the cover off Theranos’ secretive blood lab and expose Elizabeth Holmes of fraud were recent college graduates who wanted to do the right thing.
Tyler Shultz and Erika Cheung were low on Theranos’ totem pole, working as entry-level lab techs.
Holmes was their famous boss. The CEO had achieved fame, wealth, and adoration in 2014 by claiming she had technology that could save patients lives through revolutionary blood testing. Holmes graced the cover of Fortune Magazine for a story about her remarkable accomplishments, and her goal was to become the next Steve Jobs of Silicon Valley.
Shultz was just 22-years-old. Cheung’s first job after graduating from UC Berkeley was working for Theranos in Palo Alto.
They both joined Holmes’ biotech company because they admired her quest to help patients have access to cheaper, more accessible, and more accurate blood testing using microtechnology.
But as they worked in the lab, Shultz and Cheung came to the same disturbing realization: Theranos’ blood testing machines were severely flawed.
When they told Theranos executives that the lab’s blood testing machines were not producing accurate results, their concerns fell on deaf ears, according to witnesses who testified at Holmes’ criminal fraud trial.
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