It's always hard to tell without hearing intonation whether questions like this are asked in good faith out of genuine curiosity, or as a bid to steer the conversation towards semantics and nits.
Whether one can list the specific laws broken by Theranos in their specific jurisdiction is one question, whether the fraudulent nature of the company passes the bullshit test is another.
Seeing as people I know who don't even know or care much about Silicon Valley talk about Elizabeth Holmes like she's the next Jeff Skilling (something about Houston I guess), it seems, at the minimum, highly likely, given lawsuits, severed ties, total collapse, etc. that she trafficked in fraud. You're welcome to push PR on me, but you're fighting common sense, for better or worse.
She made totally false claims about her technology to investors; claiming they were performing tests with their own tech when they were using outside tech. That seems like fraud to me?
The reality is she's too well connected and wealthy to see any jail time, though.
Lead investor was a friend of her family if I remember the news correctly. I think there is also some deal to remunerate the investors with more shares in exchange for not filing a civil suit, but that might liquidate the company. Not sure if the SEC has weighed in yet or if there are financial crimes. Maybe.
Maybe there is hope the business can turn around. They have enough cash that they could buy a promising new technology/business.
I'd be surprised if it wasn't wire fraud (1343) at least, all that takes is sending an email with the claims. The only challenge would be proving that a specific person knew a specific claim was false.
I don't know anything about the investments, but I'm guessing a variety around providing human diagnostic testing that will be the basis for medical decisions.
