Theranos is finally dead, company to wind down

Theranos has told its investors that the company will wrap up, paying "unsecured creditors its remaining cash," according to The Wall Street Journal.

The company's dissolution comes months after its top two executives, ex-CEO Elizabeth Holmes and former President Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, were federally prosecuted for criminal wire fraud.

Theranos, with Holmes at the helm, had claimed that it could run a slew of physiological tests with a simple pin-prick of blood. That assertion turned out to be false.

As Ars reported previously, in March 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against Holmes, Balwani, and Theranos, alleging that they had committed "massive fraud." The SEC accused them of obtaining $700 million in investments by orchestrating an "elaborate, years-long fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the company’s technology, business, and financial performance."

Holmes and the company settled the SEC’s allegations.

Attorneys for Holmes and Balwani are next set to appear in court for a status conference before US District Judge Edward J. Davila on October 1 at 1:30pm in federal court in San Jose.

The company did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.