A jury found former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes guilty of fraud Monday, wrapping up the years-long and scandal-ridden saga of a young founder whose blood-testing technology couldn’t live up to its promises.

After seven days filled with 50 hours of deliberations, Holmes, 37, was convicted of conspiracy to defraud investors and three counts of wire fraud. The jury, made up of eight men and four women, found her not guilty on four other fraud charges tied to patients who had taken Theranos’ tests. Jurors were unable to come to a verdict regarding three counts of defrauding specific investors.

Each fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but those sentences could be served concurrently. 

"The guilty verdicts in this case reflect Ms. Holmes' culpability in this large-scale investor fraud and she must now face sentencing for her crimes," U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds said in a statement.

Theranos’ former COO Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani will face the same charges in court in February. When she took the witness stand, Holmes accused Balwani, also her ex-boyfriend, of abuse, claims he has denied. In testimony, Holmes said she should have handled some aspects of the business differently, but also blamed other workers for the company’s failures. 

Theranos, a health tech startup that claimed its devices could perform a full range of tests on a small finger-stick sample of blood, became symbolic of a “fake it ‘til you make it” culture in Silicon Valley.

The company was launched in 2003 by a 19-year-old Holmes, who dropped out from Stanford University. It went on to rack up huge numbers of investor dollars, but the technology didn’t work as advertised, even after being deployed in some Walgreens stores.

In 2015, The Wall Street Journal’s John Carreyrou began a series of investigative articles on the problems with Theranos’ potentially disruptive blood-testing tech, setting off investigations and lawsuits. The company shut down in 2018. 

“I think we need to be more cautious in healthcare. There is a reason that healthcare moves slowly. It moves slowly because patients' lives can be at risk. … I think we need to align the risk with the development of the technology, and be very cognizant of those timelines and the way that the product is built, in combination with the amount of risk,” Erika Cheung, a whistleblower and former Theranos employee who discussed the company with Carreyrou, said during an event in 2019.

“I think all of us are hungry for innovation in healthcare and want to see biotechnology products being developed. We just have to do that with a sense of caution and awareness of patient safety.”