Archive · 7 Sep 2026
Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Revisits Theranos Fraud and Beliefs
Elizabeth Holmes started Theranos after leaving Stanford University.
She promised that the company could run many blood tests using only a tiny finger-prick sample.
The technology did not work as promised, according to the article.
Theranos sometimes used regular laboratory machines while presenting the results as coming from its own invention.
Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors in 2022.
She began serving an 11-year prison sentence in 2023.
A new documentary filmed her shortly before she went to prison.
In the film, Holmes reportedly says she never lied and that the device itself worked.
The filmmakers explore why she may still believe her version of events and the possible danger to patients.
Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 after leaving Stanford University at age 19.
Theranos claimed its technology could perform many blood tests using only a finger-prick sample, but the device did not work as advertised.
Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors in 2022 and began an 11-year prison sentence in 2023.
The documentary You Can See Everything filmed Holmes and Billy Evans for about five weeks before she entered prison.
Holmes reportedly maintains in the film that she never lied and that the Theranos technology fundamentally worked.
- Who
- Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos founder; the documentary is co-directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim.
- What
- A documentary revisits Holmes, the Theranos fraud, her continued account of events, and the company’s collapse.
- When
- Theranos was founded in 2003; Holmes was convicted in January 2022, sentenced in November 2022, and began serving her sentence in 2023. The documentary filmed her for about five weeks before prison.
- Where
- The documentary had an unannounced premiere at the Telluride Film Festival; Holmes was filmed at her home in Del Mar, California.
- Why
- The film examines how Holmes describes the Theranos events and why she appears to maintain that the technology worked.
Holmes’s account
Conviction and critical account
Whether the technology worked
Holmes’s account
Holmes reportedly says she never lied, that the hardware was sound, and that only the chemistry for particular tests remained unfinished.
Conviction and critical account
The article says Theranos’s device did not work as claimed and that the company concealed failures while using standard third-party laboratory equipment for many tests.
Interpretation of her conduct
Holmes’s account
Holmes presents the remaining technical problems as an ordinary engineering task rather than proof that the technology never existed.
Conviction and critical account
Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors, and critics say the documentary does not argue that she is innocent.
Meaning of the documentary
Holmes’s account
Holmes reportedly rejects earlier dramatizations as inaccurate and maintains her own version of events.
Conviction and critical account
The filmmakers focus on why Holmes may genuinely believe her account and on the potential harm patients could have faced from faulty technology.
- Company
- Theranos
- Founded
- 2003 by Elizabeth Holmes
- Capital raised by end of 2010
- About $92 million in venture capital
- Conviction
- Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors in January 2022
- Sentence
- 11 years in prison, imposed in November 2022
- Documentary
- You Can See Everything, made by A24 and co-directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim
- Filming
- Holmes and Billy Evans were filmed for roughly five weeks before her sentence began