Fresh off the premier of Hulu's new miniseries, "The Dropout," detailing the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, we revisit our story about the disgraced Theranos founder's close ties to the powerful and deeply-rooted family behind some of the San Diego's most prominent hotels.
Elizabeth Holmes, who founded now-dissolved Theranos in 2003 at age 19, once graced the covers of magazines in which she was heralded as "the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire" and "the next Steve Jobs". She had raised billions of dollars to fund the rollout of a blood testing machine that was advertised as being able to perform over 100 different medical tests with just a prick of the finger and a few drops of blood.
It turned out that Holmes was running a shoddy operation, allegedly misleading investors and the government with baseless promises and fraudulent technology. Her blood test machines didn't work, and Theranos was actually using commercially available machines made by other manufacturers for most of its testing. After being indicted in June 2018 on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for distributing blood tests with falsified results to consumers, the trial in the case of U.S. v. Holmes, et al. began in August 2021. After more than 50 hours of deliberations over seven days, in early January 2022, a jury convicted Holmes of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She is currently awaiting sentencing, which is scheduled for September 26, 2022, and faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for her role in alleged widespread deceit that took place from 2010 to 2016.
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| The man that called himself "Hanson" talking to reporters. |
Founded in 1953 by William L. Evans' parents, William D. & Anne, Evans Hotels owns and operates The Bahia Resort Hotel in Mission Beach, the Catamaran Resort Hotel and Spa in Pacific Beach, and The Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, as well as two sternwheeler boats that ferry to and from between the company's Mission Bay hotels. In addition to being a hotel magnate, Bill L. Evans owns one of the most exclusive private antique and classic car collections in the country. He has also sat on important regional boards, including being a former District Chairman for the San Diego Tourism Marketing board; a past board member of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce; headed the Convention Center Corporation Board of Directors for a period; was a board member and past president of the San Diego Hotel-Motel Association; was past President of the Mission Bay Lessees Association; and served on the boards of both the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau and the San Diego Historical Society. It is reported that Evans Hotels estimated annual revenue is currently $180.6 million per year.
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| Bill & Billy Evans |
Bill's son Billy Evans, age 30, reportedly married Elizabeth Holmes, age 38, in a private ceremony at some point in 2019. The couple shares a newborn son who was born last July. Some have speculated the timing of Elizabeth's pregnancy was intended to delay her trial and garner sympathy from the jury. It has been reported that Holmes and Evans have been living on a home at the 74-acre, century-old Green Gables estate currently listed for sale for $135 million, located in Woodside, CA, in the Silicon Valley area. Holmes remains free as she awaits her sentencing.
Elizabeth Holmes' strategy at trial relied heavily on a "Svengali defense," essentially trying to convince the jury her actions were forced by former Theranos executive and Holmes' ex-boyfriend Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, who Holmes had known since she was 18 years of age. Balwani, who is 18 years Holmes senior, faces the same federal criminal charges as Holmes but is being tried separately, due to the conflicts in each of their respective defense strategies. Balwani's trial begins on March 8, 2022.
This week, streaming platform Hulu released the first three episode of "The Dropout," an eight episode series starring Amanda Seyfried. Apple TV+ will also be releasing a feature-length movie about Theranos named "Bad Blood", starring Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes.
For those looking to learn more about Elizabeth Holmes and the allegations against Theranos, there are several documentaries, podcasts and books available, including The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley documentary on HBO, The Drop Out podcast (which served as the basis for the Hulu series), Bad Blood: The Final Chapter podcast, and the book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by Wall Street Journal correspondent John Carreyrou, who was integral in blowing the Theranos scandal wide open in 2015.
We reached out to William L. Evans and Evans Hotels Chief Marketing Officer Ilsa Butler for comment in preparation for the original article but did not receive a response. Following the sharing of information about the connection between Elizabeth Holmes and Evans Hotels on the SanDiegoVille Instagram account, our profile was blocked by the Instagram pages for Catamaran Resort & Spa, The Lodge at Torrey Pines and Bahia Resort.
We reached out to William L. Evans and Evans Hotels Chief Marketing Officer Ilsa Butler for comment in preparation for the original article but did not receive a response. Following the sharing of information about the connection between Elizabeth Holmes and Evans Hotels on the SanDiegoVille Instagram account, our profile was blocked by the Instagram pages for Catamaran Resort & Spa, The Lodge at Torrey Pines and Bahia Resort.
The original version of this article was originally published on September 30, 2021.
