Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is scheduled to stand trial next year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Holmes and Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani were indicted last June on wire fraud charges. A special agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation told the Journal at the time that the "indictment alleges a corporate conspiracy to defraud financial investors" and that "this conspiracy misled doctors and patients about the reliability of medical tests that endangered health and lives."
This followed a series of articles in the Journal that raised questions about Theranos' technology and ability to conduct the blood tests it said it did. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also sent the firm a letter in early 2016 about deficiencies in its lab testing procedures and then barred Holmes from owning or operating a lab. The blood-testing firm, once valued at $9 billion, shuttered last September following Holmes' and Balwani's indictments.
The trial is to begin August 2020 and is expected to last three months, the Journal now reports. It adds that defense attorneys pushed for more time to go through the reams of evidence.
Holmes and Balwani face up to 20 years in prison and fines, it adds.