SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Fallen Silicon Valley star Elizabeth Holmes, accused of bamboozling traders and sufferers about her startup Theranos and its medical system that she mentioned would reshape well being care, took the witness stand late Friday in her trial for criminal fraud.

The shock choice to have Holmes testify so early in her protection got here as a bombshell and carries appreciable threat. Federal prosecutors, who rested their months-long case earlier on Friday, have made it clear that they are desirous to grill Holmes beneath oath.

Prosecutors aren’t more likely to get that probability till after the Thanksgiving vacation weekend. Holmes lawyer Kevin Downey informed U.S. District Decide Edward Davila that he expects to proceed steering her by means of her story when she returns to the stand Monday and once more Tuesday in a San Jose, California, courtroom earlier than the trial breaks till Nov. 29.

Prosecutors referred to as 29 witnesses to assist their competition that Holmes endangered sufferers’ lives whereas additionally duping traders and prospects about Theranos’ expertise. Amongst them was Gen. James Mattis, a former U.S. protection secretary and former Theranos board member, who defined how he was first impressed and in the end disillusioned by Holmes.

Additionally they introduced inner paperwork and typically salacious texts between Holmes and her former lover, Sunny Bulwani, who additionally served as Theranos’ chief working officer. In courtroom paperwork, Holmes’ attorneys have asserted she was manipulated by Balwani by means of “intimate companion abuse” — a problem that’s anticipated to come back up throughout her ongoing testimony subsequent week.

Till she took the stand Friday, Holmes had sat bolt upright in her chair to the far proper of the jury by means of the trial, emotionless even when one-time supporters testified to their misgivings about Theranos.

That mixture of compelling testimony and documentary proof apparently proved efficient at convincing Holmes to inform her aspect of the story to the jury of 10 males and 4 ladies (together with two alternates) who will in the end resolve her destiny. If convicted, Holmes — now 37 and mom to a not too long ago born son — could possibly be sentenced to as much as 20 years in jail.

Shortly after three p.m., Holmes walked slowly to the stand earlier than a rapt courtroom crammed with spectators and jurors, all carrying masks.

Maskless behind a clear barrier, Holmes recounted her early years as a scholar at Stanford College and her curiosity in illness detection. That culminated in her choice to drop out of college in 2003 at the age of 19 to discovered the startup that finally turned Theranos. Holmes mentioned the title was derived from the phrases “remedy” and “analysis”.

Holmes mentioned she satisfied her mother and father to let her use her faculty financial savings to finance her ambitions to shake up the well being care trade. “I began working all the time … making an attempt to satisfy individuals who may assist me may construct this,” Holmes mentioned in a husky voice that turned certainly one of her logos throughout Theranos’ rise.

As the firm took form, so did its imaginative and prescient. In the end Theranos developed a tool it referred to as the Edison that might allegedly scan for a whole bunch of well being issues with a number of drops of blood. Present exams typically every require a vial of blood, making it each gradual and impractical to run greater than a handful of affected person exams at a time.

Had it labored as promised, the Edison may have revolutionized well being care by making it simpler and cheaper to scan for early indicators of illness and different well being points. As an alternative, jurors heard recordings of Holmes boasting to traders about purported breakthroughs that later proved to be unfaithful. 

Witness testimony and different proof introduced in the trial strongly recommended that Holmes misrepresented purported offers with main pharmaceutical companies similar to Pfizer and the U.S. army whereas additionally concealing recurring issues with the Edison.

However the Edison issues did not grow to be public data till The Wall Avenue Journal revealed the first in a collection of explosive articles in October 2015. An audit by the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers confirmed these issues the following yr.

By then, Holmes and Balwani had raised a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from billionaire traders similar to media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the Walton household of Walmart and struck offers with Walgreens and Safeway to conduct blood exams in their pharmacies. These investments at one level valued Theranos at $9 billion, giving Holmes a $4.5 billion fortune — on paper — in 2014. 

Proof introduced at trial additionally revealed that Holmes had distributed monetary projections calling for privately held Theranos to generate $140 million in income in 2014 and $990 million in income in 2015 whereas additionally turning a revenue. A replica of Theranos’ 2015 tax return introduced as a part of the trial proof confirmed the firm had revenues of lower than $500,000 that yr whereas reporting accrued losses of $585 million.

Ellen Kreitzberg, a Santa Clara College legislation professor who has been attending the trial, mentioned she thought the authorities had made a robust case.

“There’s nothing form of fancy or attractive about this testimony,” she mentioned. “The witnesses had been very cautious in their testimony. None of the witnesses appeared to harbor anger or a grudge towards her. And so due to that, they had been very highly effective witnesses.” 

Different witnesses referred to as by the authorities included two former Theranos lab administrators who repeatedly warned Holmes that the blood-testing expertise was wildly unreliable. Prosecutors additionally questioned two part-time lab administrators, together with Balwani’s dermatologist, who spent only some hours scrutinizing Theranos’ blood-testing expertise throughout late 2014 and most of 2015. Holmes’ attorneys famous that part-time lab administrators had been allowed beneath authorities laws.

Different key witnesses included former workers of Pfizer, former Safeway CEO Steve Burd and a litany of Theranos traders, together with a consultant for the household funding agency of former training secretary Betsy DeVos. The DeVos household wound up investing $100 million.