While at the helm of the failed blood-testing startup, Holmes managed to convince presidential cabinet members, billionaire CEOs, and other high-profile figures to throw billions at the company.
The Waltons — the Walmart founders and America's richest family with a net worth of $247 billion as of 2020, according to Forbes — invested $150 million in Theranos.
Advertisement
Rupert Murdoch
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch poured $125 million into the company. Ironically the downfall of Theranos was triggered by reporting in The Wall Street Journal, one of the newspapers he controlled.
The DeVos family, who are heirs to the Amway empire and includes former US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, poured $100 million into Theranos. Like Murdoch, they're also meant to get the full sum back.
The Cox family
Theranos also got $100 million from the Atlanta-based billionaire Cox family, which owns the media and automotive company Cox Enterprises. The Cox family was the eight-wealthiest in the US as of 2020, with a net worth of $34.5 billion at the time, according to Forbes.
Advertisement
Carlos Slim
Carlos Slim is the world's 11th richest man and runs the largest mobile-phone operator in Latin America, América Móvil. He sank $30 million into Theranos, according to an initial complaint.
Greek shipping magnate Andreas Dracopoulos invested $25 million into Theranos, but only after staff at his philanthropic organisation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, stopped him doing it through the trust, per court testimony reported by The Wall Street Journal.
He isn't listed among the parties ordered to be reimbursed by Holmes and Balwani.
Alan Eisenman, a less high-profile investor in Theranos, poured $1.2 million into the company after a five-minute phone call with Holmes in 2006, The Verge reported.
Still, he said he missed out on $30 million in profits by refusing to sell his shares back to Holmes before the company collapsed, per CBS. Holmes and Balwani were ordered to pay Eisenman about $100,000.
{{}}
NewsletterSIMPLY PUT - where we join the dots to inform and inspire you. Sign up for a weekly brief collating many news items into one untangled thought delivered straight to your mailbox.