--- Rupert Murdoch, quoted in "Theranos Investors React With Sadness, Satisfaction" by Christopher Weaver in the WSJ, 18 Nov 2022.
From the piece:
Investors in Theranos Inc. reacted to the sentence with sadness, embarrassment and some satisfaction.
“Of course it was fraud,” said Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, in an email after the sentencing. “But I only have myself to blame for not asking a lot more questions. One of a bunch of old men taken in by a seemingly great young woman! Total embarrassment.”
For the fine line between fraud and folly, cf. this excerpt:
Early investor Marc Ostrofsky, a venture capitalist, said he didn’t believe Ms. Holmes set out to commit fraud.
“I don’t think she started out to be a dishonest person,” Mr. Ostrofsky said. “I think Silicon Valley, fake it till you make it, is where she ended up.”
See also "The Risky Business of Sam Bankman-Fried" by Ben Cohen, WSJ, 14 Nov 2022
There is much that remains unknown about the meltdown, and one big question for the investigators figuring out what happened is whether it was folly or fraud—a cautionary tale of excess risk or an empire built on a house of cards.
