Silicon Valley’s Biggest Scam 

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She would have gotten away with it if she only lied to poor customers and not rich investors.

I love a Danny script! Hope the basement is treating you well mate.

Casual Criminalist: Simon gradually changes his stance on the death penalty. Brain Blaze: Simon Gradually changes his stance on dogs.

Simon, you were completely right about Kissinger because he freakin died today and I didn't watch this until like three days ago. I had never thought about this man and then bam. Congrats.

I was working for Walgreens as a store manager and oooooooh boy were they playing damage control at store level. They spent the previous 3 years drastically cutting budgets and purchasing power to afford the payments they were making to Theranos. Then when sh*t went down, upper management doubled-down on blaming stores for the massive loss of money. Which led to more cuts. And thats why when you walk into a Walgreens nowadays it looks like theyre going out of business.

I feel sorry for that child. She will spend her entire life knowing you were only born to get a shorter sentence.

I am a scientist and have talked to a Wall Street journal journalist and can attest that after talking science with them for 2 hours I got the "please get me out of here" vibe from them.

The big revelation from the Theranos debacle is the utter credulous stupidity of investors. We're such a sophisticated, tech-savvy people, that the huge money-managers can't be bothered to check things out thoroughly before pouring massive amounts of money down the toilet.

"I regret my failings with every cell of my body." Don't worry, Elizabeth. Your body will have replaced those cells by the time you get out.

Some blood tests use chemical reactions that are very slow. Especially the photochemistry stuff. Combine that with the fact the we chemists like to run the same test multiple times to verify out results. Especially when someone's life may hang in the balence

I went to prison for one year once. It was actually one to ten years but I made parole after one year for grand larceny. One of those “did what I had to do to survive” kind of situations. I will always remember the lady in there for 30 years for having a lot of marijuana in her garage and the lady who got out of prison after eight years for murder. That is some crazy shit.

Simon is the only person who could make “shooting the shit” a legit genre of entertainment.

3:30 - Mid roll ads 5:05 - Chapter 1 - A child of enron 10:10 - Chapter 2 - The rise of theranos 18:15 - Chapter 3 - High blood pressure 33:10 - Chapter 4 - Trial by blood 48:10 - Chapter 5 - Awaiting sentence 56:45 - Chapter 6 - Meet Liz 1:02:05 - Chapter 7 - Blood legacy

it's still so crazy to me that she got pregnant after being indicted. it may have been arrogance to think that she would not go to jail and went ahead with kids but given how manipulative she is I'm leaning towards her having the kids in a psychopathic attempt to get jury sympathy in the deliberation or at least try to get a reduced sentence.

I think the biggest giveaway was that the machine was called “The Edison Machine”. A smart dude who grifted his way to fame.

Ever since the dramatic stuff with Blaire / Illuminaughtii happened, I've been looking for a different channel to listen to about this type of content. Man, Simon, you guys provide so much content that covers so many aspects of the modern world. Please never change the integrity that you cover stories with! Both the actual scripts are impressive and the character, personality and anecdotes that Simon reads the with is great!

Somebody stole $200 from me over the internet in 1999. Several others got scammed too. The feds decided to make an example of this case, and went hard. They found the guy, he got 15 years in prison, and now every year I get a check from the treasury for restitution - $37 this year. LOL!! Almost 25 years later this guy still has his wages garnished.

59:15 -- Simon's bafflement at the fact America is actually home to wild animals never ceases to amuse. Yes, mountain lions are not uncommon, especially in the western part of the country. They are far from unknown near Silicon Valley, particularly in the expensive parts nearest the Santa Cruz Mountains. Chances are that Balto got grabbed by one because he was left outside overnight, something that only the most negligent pet owner would do. Basically, Balto's death was her fault and she tried to spin it in the opposite direction.

I’m a med tech or as the kids call it now a days: medical laboratory scientist. I remember when 1 of my coworkers was freaking our saying we were gonna lose our jobs to these “machines”. I was like, there’s no way in hell that it’s legit, it’s a scam. Blood tests are not collected in a variety of colored tubes just for shit and giggles, there’s a reason and for a lot of tests, they’re not interchangeable. Most chemistry tests are not even done on whole blood and a single drop would certainly not be enough for a comprehensive metabolic panel. Also basic laboratory test only take 20 - 30 mins, the ones that takes a week for a result to get are usually those specialized tests like DNA testing or tests that are uncommon and only performed at send out/reference labs and only done on certain days.

The patients should have gotten their money BEFORE the investors, because the investors enabled the scam to begin with. Had any of the investors done their due diligence, no one would have gotten scammed.

simon’s been feeding us good with long vids across his channels these past few days hell yeah

Fleischmann's Yeast is like one of the top yeast brands in the US. They're in most supermarkets. Like, I don't think you understand how big they are. That's insane to me that she came from that lineage and just bungled everything.

That kissinger bit was very close to being spot on

Geez, it will be a terrible tragedy when the guilt she feels about stealing millions of dollars from some of the most powerful people in the world caused her to end her own life during a completely coincidental glitch that shuts off all security recording devices in her cell.

Elizabeth Holmes is a real world example of how devastating the appeal to wealth fallacy can be. Everything about her setup was fishy, but people kept piling on solely because some other rich person had. Elon Musk is another contemporary example.

I remember the first episode years ago. Thank you for concluding this blaze.

It is important to note that ignorance is not innocence in a court of law. In court "I don't know." doesn't cut it.

Let’s get a bioblaze of Danny’s life

The writers might be trapped in the basement but I love how they can still get a good shot in at Factboi. 18:19 That's like the third time Danny jabs at Simon using the neon sign and it works everytime.... unlike the neon sign itself. BUDDA BOOM BOOM TSH

On the topic of 'creative' business models, I'd love to see a video on Wirecard, the German Enron.

An hour long Brain Blaze. Simply lovely

Medical Laboratory Scientist (ASCP) here. This is an extremely frustrating case. Lab tests are complicated and typically use multiple different machines. For example chemistry samples are typically centrifuged then a small sample is taken. That small sample then has a chemical reaction and then the product of the reaction concentration is read at a specific wavelength. Also the most common lab tests can easily be completed within the span of this video.

Being an Australian I've never personally heard of a Swamp Wallaby so I had to look it up. Turns out that I know it as a Black Pademelon. I've been fortunate enough to spot one in the wild earlier this year.

I think she's already been surpassed by others. Adam Neumann raised $20 billion for WeWork, now it has a market cap of less than $200 million. Nikola Motors had a market cap of $34 billion, now it's less than $1 billion.

Thank you Simon and Danny!! OGBB, blazing the Theranos story! With only one frame of a Brain Blaze video, you can determine a thousand reasons to Smash the Dislike button!

THIS is the content we love from BB! Thank you Simon, Danny, and Sam

An hour long episode on Theranos on Halloween? Thank you for this gift 🥳

Crazy that this story has finally ended after years of business blaze LOL

The voice is really the dog's spirit speaking through her.

Ego, stupidity and no self awareness is such a trifecta of horrible . We all know so many of these individuals

What is awful is she took a great idea but was only interested in becoming famous and rich. Now people are going to be reluctant to invest in medical technology advancements.

You can definitely take college classes in prison. The prison I went to was in close proximity to Fairmont University and they had instructors come for classes. They didn’t offer anything that would get them a degree though. It was one of those things that you can take classes to get enough credits for a general studies degree.

The home she was renting is known as Green Gables, and it is one of, if not the, most expensive home in one of the most expensive areas in the US. I was under the impression that she did not own it, but I could be . The property has multiple homes on it, and sits on 75 acres. So the high price has some other factors to it. She was living in one of the smaller homes on the property, but I'm sure it was still pretty nice.

Yeah, mountain lions exist here. It’s one of the consequences of being an area that was only relatively recently settled by Europeans: we still have wilderness and wildlife here. They usually don’t eat people though. Usually.

SFB is like, “hold my pumpkin spice latte Elizabeth.”

Her deep interview voice wasn't allowed to go to prison with her. Hearing her in her real voice now sounds weird.

I live in Ohio, and at least for some tests, a lot of results of a blood test can come back within days, although I have an app to view the results. Oftentimes, I end up seeing the doctor that ordered a routine blood test well after I actually get my copy of the results.

I find the joke about Henry Kissinger was quite ironic since he died 28 days after the release of this video.

As the only person in my family that didn't go to college, yes you can get degrees in prison. My brother has 2 degrees in fact. Yep, one of thoes life is unfair things, I have a GED though. I do have my freedom, and thats the more important thing, but damn is it a burr under my sadle.

I still want to fix that light for you... It looked badass when it worked. Send it my way and I'll take care of it! 😁

There are few people I genuinely hate. Andrew Wakefield. Elizabeth Holmes. Essentially anyone who exploits or generates misinformation that results in the knowing harm of others

Good script Danny. Oh, and you too Fact Boi. Yes, Simon, mountain lions (aka panthers/cougars/pumas) are roaming all over the USofA. So on your next visit, be careful! Unlike Europe, there are all sots of critters in the USofA that will happily eat you. Or in he case of bison and moose, stomp you.

Simon... as someone whos been here asking to see the light fixed since day 1, i say this with all of my love. If the neon sign goes, so do i.

Moment of silence for the real victim here: Balto

Holy Shit! The best subject and the best writer. This is going to be amazing.

Does anyone else feel like Rupert Murdoch was either trying to subtly blame his bad decisions on her being a "attractive young woman" or he accidentally might of admitted to investing in her company to try and get into her pants?

''they're not destroying my liver or whatever'' Lithium. .. Hm...

Honestly if I was the judge I'd let the case go as scamming both Ruppert Murdoch and Henry Kissinger is unbelievably based. Its also probably why I'm not a judge.

The most businesslike Brain Blaze Script since Brain Blaze was Business Blaze

Finally after so many years an OGBB legend is back

I feel sorry for her children. Simon 49 is not old, just wait tell you get there! Anyway I enjoy your videos!

Can't say I feel bad about all thesem illionaires and billionaires being defrauded....

It still bothers me that she wasn't tagged with any crimes related to the patients. They took samples that were sent to them for testing and sent them to traditional labs despite knowing the samples sizes were too small for traditional testing. How is that not reckless endangerment of some sort? I'm assuming they never informed the requesting doctors about this, so they provided information to the patients in good faith that the testing was done properly.

“RIP to the GOAT” fucking killed me 😂😂😂

I have been waiting for this one! I had a feeling this episode was on its way given Simon's fascination with this story. Bonus super long Blaze!

Chronically ill human here, when trying to work out what's wrong with my body, I've had a couple of blood tests that took a few weeks - a month to come back. One of those cost like $300 (notable because I'm Australian and its the only blood test ive ever paid for) and took the staff multiple phone calls to work out how they were supposed to do the draw and what it was even testing for. ✨️the more you know✨️

Oprah's home is valued at $88 Million, and a lot of A-Lister celbs have lower cost homes, so yes her home was one of the most expensive ones.

Only off on the Henry Kissinger dying thing by 1 month , great job Fact-Boy!

A SUPER LONG SCRIPT BY DANNY?! YESSSS!!

You called it, Kissinger is playing thumb-war with worms

Great episode! Keep putting em out, factboy!

13:22 oh man. That aged well.

Simon! What happened to you buying the name theranos? You promised!

Oh a Danny EPIC Blaze…… yeeehaaa let’s do this TangentBoi

The ironic thing is that some of the things she actually claimed has since been invented. But with tests of this kind it's kind of like with gun production. You can make a list of what you want in the product but you can never get all of it. So for example now we have the ability to run a frankly ludicrous amount of simultaneous tests on a small amount of blood (with the right equipment, which not many hospitals have fully implemented yet) but you still can't just prick someone in the finger and use a drop of whole blood for every kind of analysis. Also, and more importantly, getting your finger pricked hurts more than having your blood drawn from a vein on average, and for longer. So I don't really understand what the benefit of getting less blood and potentially needing to get pricked more times is supposed to be.

As I watch this... Kissinger is dead.

Simon, proving once again that he doesn't have to pay for every bit of healthcare. Including bloodwork.

9:23 Simon, the American Healthcare System is incredibly broken. I’ve been lied to about my prescription meds’ refill status *twice* in the past three months; once by the actual clinic, once by the local pharmacist.

I've been waiting for this one for a while and it's a full hour of glorious brain/business blazing 😊

"This is a really cool thing you've invented can we see it work?" "No. But here's our internal test results" "Cool would you like a billion dollars?" Honestly the people who invested in this scam should also go to prison for being dangerously credulous people with too much fucking wealth at their disposal.

Well he was off by a month for Henry kissinger dieing.

Danny, simon, and sam, amazing as always

Man, if a cougar killed my dog there'd be one less cougar in the woods. RIP doggo.

Watching this video after Kissinger

Simon accidentally flexing how much better his healthcare is than the average American Healthcare experience 😂

Listened to the John Careyrou audiobook, now for Simon and Danny’s take. Can’t wait. Perfect for a long drive tomorrow.

This feels more like a Casual Criminal Episode.

Theranos videos was how I discovered business blaze and the whistler universe

Hi Kris! Loved seeing behind the bit framed & on the wall. Well worth the 5 years it took. 🥰

Thank you for the surprise epic blaze, I DO like the long episodes!

Oooo THERE'S a Brain Blaze title! Worst Offenders of "Fake it till you Make it" There's a great clip from Martha Stewart's "Apprentice" where someone says that to her and she just destroys them. It's like 15 years later and I still remember how hard they faceplanted.

I remember this story from the O.G.B.B days

It's important to note that Holmes was always intentionally defrauding folks. Her concept simply never would have worked due to basic human biology and her original advisor at Stanford informed her of this issue. Rather than take advice from an expert in the field, Holmes decided to go scam as many folks as she could. She was trying to drum up investment by lying about her tech already working way back before anyone had much heard of her. She went so far as to go on a radio show, Tech Nation, aimed at investors back on 21 April 2005. The transcript and original audio is still available if you Google for it. I'd link it but links can be weird on YT. In this interview, however, she claimed that her product was "going into, sort of, the production phase". The interviewer confirmed with her to be clear she was "almost in manufacture" and Holmes said, "Oh, absolutely." For those who've never dealt with this, the production phase, aka manufacture, is the final phase after all testing and clearance. It's literally the part of a product lifecycle where you figure out the manufacturing line setup, not "figure out how to make the product work". This was an obvious lie to anyone who knew anything about human blood testing but Holmes was mostly avoiding those folks because she knew they'd see the lie for what it was. She was never not a fraud. Period.

OMG props to the editor on this one 😁 brilliant, 'Am I right Peter?'

We came, we Business’d, we Blazed, we conquered.

If you are going to attend a wedding and return, you don't buy one way tickets. She absolutely planned to run

Is it a coincidence that Simon mentioned Kissinger and he died? Probably, but you never know. Not the first time it's happened.

37 dating an 18 year old is rookie numbers compared to a guy I know who is basically 50 now, an ex school board member and started dating a freshly graduated senior not long after. And he wonders why people think it’s weird.

So I am watching this for the first time and the Kissinger bit at ~13:30 is so topical.