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Attorneys say Elizabeth Holmes isn’t paying them
- hkmurakami 7y ago"Holmes — who dropped out of Stanford University at 19 to found Theranos — and Balwani face maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $2.75 million fine, plus possible restitution, the Department of Justice has said. Members of her legal team in the criminal case did not respond to questions about whether Holmes has been paying them." Civil case lawyers not being paid. Criminal lawyers may be getting paid. Priorities.
- travisjungroth 7y agoYou can’t get blood from a stone, but you can lock it up.
- Porthos9K 7y agoScumbags never change. Did her attorneys honestly think Holmes would balk at stiffing them when she already proved willing and able to shaft Theranos' investors and employees?
- tomhoward 7y agoI'm sure she'd willingly pay them whatever it would take minimise her penalties, if she could. Occam's razor compels us to presume she's just broke.
- Porthos9K 7y agoFunny. Knowing her history, my razor pointed toward a proven lack of scruples.
- tomhoward 7y agoThe outcome is what matters in this case, far more than scruples. Presuming she wants to minimise her penalty, she will pay whatever it costs to make that happen. If she's not paying, it must surely be because she's broke, rather than out of some perverse thrill of screwing people over and also getting a more severe penalty.
- nordsieck 7y ago> If she's not paying, it must surely be because she's broke, rather than out of some perverse thrill of screwing people over and also getting a more severe penalty. Precisely. The "rational" time to screw the lawyers is once the trial is over, not before. * Not actually rational because life is a multi-round game.
- srge 7y agoAnd customers...
- _iyig 7y agoWhat happens if the attorneys quit, and Holmes can't afford more private lawyers? Would a public defender represent her? That'd be quite the case to pull, I'd imagine. On cases where full teams of lawyers and paralegals are needed, practically speaking, I'd be curious what sort of resources a public defender might be afforded.
- nradov 7y agoPublic defenders don't represent defendants in civil cases. If Ms. Holmes can no longer afford an attorney then she'll have to appear pro se (or find pro bono representation).
- np_tedious 7y agoCivil cases usually do not qualify for public defender. But then again, I guess this one is far from "usual"
- iamasoftwaredev 7y agoGod I hope she has to deal with having an underpaid and overworked public defender.
- aleister_777 7y agoWell, yeah. Frankly seems like they were a bit slow on the uptake. Most companies operate at a net-30, net-90 with terms.
- hliyan 7y agoPerhaps it is time that we permanently retire the misguided Silicon Valley maxim "fake it till you make it". And along with that, maybe revisit the wisdom of others such as "fail fast".
- jmknoll 7y agoI’m not sure, I think “fail fast” could have benefited Theranos if they had seen the early failure of their machines and iterated on them rather than attempted to cover up the fact that they didn’t work.
- np_tedious 7y agoWhat's wrong with "fail fast"? An honest Theranos that failed far sooner would've done little harm. "Fail fast" is about trying new things quickly and, here's the key, getting out when they start looking bad.
- damian2000 7y agoTotally agree - Theranos went on for something like a decade without any evidence they had made any sort of process breakthrough or innovation. The whole company was built on lies and bullshit. The co-founder dude who put up the initial money made that money by speculating on the dot com boom of 1999/2000 and getting out before it bust.
- Erlich_Bachman 7y agoThat's why he(she?) wrote "revisit". As in, let's get back to it, let's see why it could have been good.
- breck 7y agoThe true disgrace is this mercurynews website: https://share.icloud.com/photos/0d2m26gTecPfCus98HJoN9LyA https://share.icloud.com/photos/0d2m26gTecPfCus98HJoN9LyA
- alephnan 7y agoWhat's the disgrace?
- breck 7y agoCheck the screenshot. That’s the user experience when I clicked this link. But beyond the UX, and the stupidity of saying “private browsing is reserved for our logged in users”, think of the hypocrisy here: they want us to support freedom of the press and anonymous sources but don’t allow us to read anonymously.
- zxexz 7y agoThe New York Times does the same thing now, too. A scary dark pattern. I wish Incognito mode was less detectable, though I’m not exactly sure how that would work.
- lokedhs 7y agoQubes OS and running the browser in a disposable VM works. It should be possible to set up a lighter container with a browser whose data is completely wiped after the session competes for people who don't need or don't want to go all the way to use Qubes OS as their primate system. Surely someone must have built this already? If not, it would be an interesting project.
- zxexz 7y agoQubes OS is excellent for things like that, but not really something most people are willing to use. I love Qubes OS; especially being able to have a disposable Windows 7 template VM I can game with that has a PCI passthrough for my spare graphics card. Though, it's a bit heavy for my daily driver laptop. Also, re: your browser idea - checkout the sibling comment to yours on using Chrome with a temporary data directory.
- throwaway2048 7y agoIf you stop paying your lawyers you are really screwed, because nobody is going to bother representing you in the future.
- ghego1 7y agoSo true
- DoreenMichele 7y agoThe lawyers are seeking approval from the court to stop representing Holmes. Because they haven't been paid in a year and don't expect to ever see a dime, given the state of her finances.
- paxys 7y agoWhat law firm agrees to work for a year without payment? Every one we have ever worked with would have cut us off after like a week, or max a month. Although I guess Elizabeth Holmes has swindled smarter people.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- newguy1234 7y agoIts a resume builder to say the least to show that you've worked serious cases.
- oh_sigh 7y agoWhy do lawyers need approval to stop representing a client? Isn't this essentially slavery if the courts decide so?
- ender341341 7y agoIt can unfairly reflect poorly on their client and bias the jury. In a case like this it should pretty much be a rubber stamp process from what I've read.
- arcticfox 7y agoIIRC, when some of DOJs lawyers wanted out of defending the border detention camp "no toothbrush required" cases, it's also because it's a PITA for the Court to ramp up a new legal team in the middle of a massive case
- deleted 7y ago
- justinator 7y agoI'm simply shocked.
- ymolodtsov 7y agoShe probably swore on blood she’d pay.
- louwrentius 7y agoPlease read the book "Bad Blood" about Theranos if you haven't already. It's just unbelievable what happend with Theranos and how a person like Elizabeth Holmes could do what she did.
- Fjolsvith 7y agoIn related news, Michael Avenatti sues Stormy Daniels for legal fees, also. [1] 1. https://www.thedailybeast.com/michael-avenatti-suing-stormy-daniels-for-millions-in-legal-backpay https://www.thedailybeast.com/michael-avenatti-suing-stormy-...
- dang 7y agoCould you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News and stop using this site for political and ideological battle? You've unfortunately done quite a bit of both, and we ban accounts that do them repeatedly. The reason is that they both go against intellectual curiosity, which is the purpose of this site. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- kyleblarson 7y agoMeantime the number 3 article on the home page is a NYT Op Ed using charts with non linear axes to make charts look scary to push their predetermined left leaning narrative.
- iamasoftwaredev 7y ago> push their predetermined left leaning narrative. The NYT Op Ed department is largely despised by leftists.
- Simulacra 7y agoI'm curious how much this is costing to defend her and the whole house of cards.