In 2014 Elizabeth Holmes was on top of the world. She was the founder of named Theranos, a $9 billion empire that had purportedly revolutionized health diagnostics.
No longer would the patient have to be subjected to painful, invasive, and expensive tests. Theranos claimed that its proprietary tests could detect ailments such as cancer merely with a few drops of blood
with their device named ‘Edison’.
Behemoths such as Secretaries of State, Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, and General James Mattis were on the board. The likes of Rupert
Murdoch were investors. She appeared on panels alongside Bill Clinton and delivered impassioned TED talks.
But an empire built on a lie will come crashing down someday.
The foundation of Theranos was ‘Edison’ which simply didn't function. Most of the results were complete falsehoods. Holmes’s empire was built at
the expense of innocent patients.
In 2018, a federal grand jury indicted
Holmes on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts
of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, with the victims being investors
and patients. She faces up to 20 years in federal prison, plus
potentially millions in restitution and fines. Her sentencing is scheduled for
September 26, 2022.
She was arrogant, deluded, and foolish to think that her fraud
would not be discovered someday. In fact, it is astounding how she managed to
block both internal and external regulatory authorities. It ultimately took whistleblowers and the WSJ to expose her fraud.
The people of BLM flourished where Holmes faltered.
“Black
Lives Matter” began as a trend on social media, in 2013
following Trayvon Martin's death. Soon it evolved into a slogan used by ‘protestors’
all over the US.
BLM founders followed the business model pioneered by veteran
race hustler Al Sharpton which is ‘give us your money or we’ll brand you racist’.
However it was the death of George
Floyd in 2020, that took BLM their movement to prominence and made them the prime arbiters in matters of race.
People from Showbiz, Sports, News Media, Academia, and Politics
donated generously to BLM and posted photos of Floyd and logos of BLM on social
media.
Big tech firms such as Google committed $12 million, Facebook
and Amazon donated $10 million and Apple pledged a whopping $100
million. Walmart announced a contribution of $100 million
while Target announced $10 million and Home Depot
announced $1
million.
BLM managed to make $90m in just one year over the death of
George Floyd. Not content with only donations, BLM even began to sell
merchandise.
The donor did not bother to know how their money was spent, this is because it was were protection money. They knew by donating, they could be 'one of the good ones'.
So what became of the money?
Last year, the NY Post reported
that BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors, then BLM's executive director, spent
$3.2 million on various real estate within the US.
There were also reports of transactions where BLM transferred
money to a Canadian nonprofit managed by the wife of Cullors in order to buy a $3 million house.
A few days ago, the New York
Magazine reported that in October 2020, BLM bought a 6,500-square-feet Southern California mansion. This is the
very mansion where BLM founders were filmed sipping Champagne and dining
in luxury in one of BLM's videos posted on social media.
Although the property had originally been bought for $3.1million, it was transferred to the Delaware company for $5.8million. The discrepancy between these two figures has yet to be explained. Delaware, which is Joe Biden's home state known for its notoriously opaque corporate transparency rules. Perhaps that was the purpose behind the property being transferred to Delaware, to hide the proprietor's identity?
BLM claims to be dedicated to wealth distribution. They also
claim their mission is dismantling capitalism. Yet they had no qualm about the
purchase of the various luxury properties.
BLM also failed to
file taxes for 2020 when it raised millions after George Floyd’s death. They have
not made a full disclosure pertaining to their donations and expenditures raising
serious legal and ethical red
flags.
The millions raised could have been invested in the school,
colleges, universities, vocational training centers, hospitals, gyms, sports complexes,
rehabilitation centers, job centers, and to pay legal assistance for those in
need.
Instead, BLM founders enriched themselves.
BLM also supported rioting, looting, and burning causing losses ranging
from $1 to $2
million dollars. Most of
this occurred in working-class localities and even hurt businesses
run by black people.
BLM’s relentless campaign of hate will have convinced a section
of black people that the US is systemically racist causing them to believe that
persecution is inevitable irrespective of qualifications or talents or hard
work. This results in them giving up on life. Losses can be recovered and
houses rebuild but once hope is lost, all is lost.
Unlike Elizbeth Holmes, BLM didn’t make any tangible or quantifiable
promises, their goal was unstated, esoteric, and symbolic which ensured they could keep
collecting without any oversight.
There is little difference between Holmes and BLM, both
profited by swindling those in need. Both made false promises raising
millions of dollars. Both lived lavishly while their victims suffer.
Both displayed an astounding lack of transparency about the activities. Both
played with lives.
While Elizbeth Holmes’s fraud could be 20 years in federal prison,
BLM founders are unlikely to any such punishment. They simply have to brand their critics as racist.
But hoaxers such as these cause deep skepticism and cynicism
among the public. A society plagued by skepticism and cynicism can never
flourish.
This also appears on American Thinker
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