By ABC News' count, former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes said "I don't know" more than 600 times in a deposition.
That deposition, it notes, took place in June 2017 before attorneys from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which was investigating whether she orchestrated a years-long fraud.
Theranos had claimed that it could conduct laboratory tests using only a droplet of blood. But its statements unraveled as the Wall Street Journal published a series of reports that questioned its technology and quality control practices. A Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services inspection also uncovered "condition-level deficiencies" and eventually barred Holmes from owning or operating a lab for two years. At the same time, investigations into the firm began, including by the SEC.
ABC News reports that in her deposition to the SEC, Holmes was asked whether she was concerned about the test not working on Theranos' devices. "I know that we made mistakes," Holmes replied, according to ABC News. She later adds that some of her claims about the technology were not accurate.
She and Theranos settled with the SEC without admitting any wrongdoing, though former Theranos COO Ramesh Balwani, known as Sunny, is fighting the charges. Holmes and Balwani have also been indicted on with wire fraud charges brought by the Department of Justice, and they have pleaded not guilty, ABC News adds.