Partner Keri Axel Quoted by AP as Elizabeth Holmes Jury Reaches Guilty Verdict

Partner Keri Curtis Axel was quoted by AP on January 3, 2022 just before the jury convicted Elizabeth Holmes in the Silicon Valley fraud trial. “‘For all intents and purposes, the government needs only a guilty verdict on one count,’ said Keri Curtis Axel, a former federal prosecutor now working as a trial lawyer at the Los Angeles law firm Waymaker.”

Before a federal jury found Theranos founder and CEO Holmes guilty on four counts, the jury told U.S. District Judge Edward Davila they were deadlocked on three of the 11 felony counts against Holmes. Davila told the jury to keep deliberating on the remaining eight counts. Axel told AP that the deadlock on three counts made it more likely that the jurors had reached guilty verdicts on some of the other counts.

Later Monday, the jury found the 37-year-old Holmes guilty of four counts (two counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud), not guilty on three counts, and deadlocked on three counts on charges that she knowingly misled Theranos investors into thinking her company’s blood-testing technology worked better than it actually did. Holmes faces up to 20 years in prison for each guilty count.

“She chose fraud over business failure,” said prosecutor Jeff Schenk in his closing statement.