(Updated) A key witness told the biotechnology company embroiled in fraud charges the company is missing too many prospective jurors, raising concern about the outcome of the trial, a new media report said on Tuesday.
Nicholas Vahanian, a forensic accountant, said prosecutors’ efforts to contact potential jurors by phone were ineffective, the report said.
Prosecutors are investigating allegations that Holmes and the company’s inventor, Matthew Kane, wrongly reported more than $120 million in loans as a loan, a tactic that could hurt their claims of innocence in the fraud case, the New York Times reported.
A spokeswoman for Holmes’ company, Theranos, declined to comment. A spokesman for prosecutors declined to comment on the report.
Holmes is accused of fraudulently concealing her company’s inability to prove the accuracy of its blood testing technology. Holmes was a one-time college dropout who became a billionaire with her company’s explosive growth, but its future has been called into question.
