Theranos
E459893
Theranos was a now-defunct health technology company founded by Elizabeth Holmes that became infamous for falsely claiming to revolutionize blood testing and for its central role in a major corporate fraud scandal.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Theranos canonical | 13 |
| Theranos scandal | 1 |
| rise and fall of Theranos | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4688017 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Theranos Context triple: [The Dropout, portrays, Theranos]
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A.
Galgate
Galgate is a village in Lancashire, England, situated just south of the city of Lancaster.
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B.
Sandgate
Sandgate is a coastal village and suburb in Kent, England, known for its shingle beach, historic seafront, and proximity to the town of Folkestone.
-
C.
Sandgate
Sandgate is a railway station serving the suburb of Sandgate in the Newcastle region of New South Wales, Australia.
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D.
Skidegate
Skidegate is a Haida community and ferry terminal village located on Graham Island in Haida Gwaii, off the northern coast of British Columbia, Canada.
-
E.
Enron
Enron was a major American energy company that became infamous for one of the largest corporate frauds and bankruptcies in history, leading to sweeping reforms in financial regulation and corporate governance.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Theranos Target entity description: Theranos was a now-defunct health technology company founded by Elizabeth Holmes that became infamous for falsely claiming to revolutionize blood testing and for its central role in a major corporate fraud scandal.
-
A.
Galgate
Galgate is a village in Lancashire, England, situated just south of the city of Lancaster.
-
B.
Sandgate
Sandgate is a coastal village and suburb in Kent, England, known for its shingle beach, historic seafront, and proximity to the town of Folkestone.
-
C.
Sandgate
Sandgate is a railway station serving the suburb of Sandgate in the Newcastle region of New South Wales, Australia.
-
D.
Skidegate
Skidegate is a Haida community and ferry terminal village located on Graham Island in Haida Gwaii, off the northern coast of British Columbia, Canada.
-
E.
Enron
Enron was a major American energy company that became infamous for one of the largest corporate frauds and bankruptcies in history, leading to sweeping reforms in financial regulation and corporate governance.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (61)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
defunct company
ⓘ
health technology company ⓘ privately held company ⓘ |
| accusation |
massive fraud
ⓘ
misleading investors ⓘ misleading patients and doctors ⓘ using conventional analyzers while claiming proprietary technology ⓘ |
| boardMember |
Bill Frist
ⓘ
George Shultz ⓘ
linked to:
George P. Shultz
Henry Kissinger ⓘ
linked to:
Henry A. Kissinger
James Mattis ⓘ
linked to:
James N. Mattis
Richard Kovacevich ⓘ Riley P. Bechtel ⓘ Sam Nunn ⓘ William Perry ⓘ |
| businessModel | centralized laboratory testing using proprietary devices ⓘ |
| claimedTechnology |
Edison blood-testing device
ⓘ
finger-prick blood testing ⓘ |
| CMSAction |
revocation of California lab license
ⓘ
two-year ban on operating a lab ⓘ |
| coFoundedBy |
Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani
ⓘ
linked to:
Sunny Balwani
|
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| dissolutionDate | 2018 ⓘ |
| employeeCountAtPeak | over 800 employees ⓘ |
| foundedBy | Elizabeth Holmes ⓘ |
| foundingDate | 2003 ⓘ |
| headquartersLocation |
Palo Alto, California
ⓘ
Silicon Valley ⓘ |
| industry |
healthcare technology
ⓘ
medical diagnostics ⓘ |
| investorType |
high-net-worth individuals
ⓘ
venture capital firms ⓘ |
| keyPerson |
Elizabeth Holmes
ⓘ
Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani ⓘ
linked to:
Sunny Balwani
|
| legalOutcome |
SEC settlement with Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes in 2018
ⓘ
company agreed to dissolve ⓘ |
| liquidation | assets distributed to creditors ⓘ |
| majorPartner |
Safeway
ⓘ
Walgreens ⓘ
linked to:
Walgreens Boots Alliance
|
| mediaCoverage | extensive coverage in major U.S. and international media ⓘ |
| nameEtymology | portmanteau of "therapy" and "diagnosis" ⓘ |
| notableEvent |
CMS sanctions against its laboratory in 2016
ⓘ
SEC civil fraud charges in 2018 ⓘ Wall Street Journal investigative reports in 2015 ⓘ criminal fraud charges against executives in 2018 ⓘ |
| notableFor |
corporate fraud scandal
ⓘ
false claims about revolutionary blood tests ⓘ |
| originalName | Real-Time Cures ⓘ |
| positionHeld |
Elizabeth Holmes – founder and CEO
ⓘ
linked to:
Elizabeth Holmes
Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani – president and COO ⓘ |
| regulatoryBodyInvolved |
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
ⓘ
Securities and Exchange Commission ⓘ U.S. Department of Justice ⓘ
linked to:
United States Department of Justice
U.S. Food and Drug Administration ⓘ
linked to:
Food and Drug Administration
|
| renamedTo | Theranos ⓘ |
| status | shut down ⓘ |
| subjectOf |
HBO documentary "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley"
ⓘ
Hulu miniseries "The Dropout" ⓘ book "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup" ⓘ |
| unicornStatus | yes ⓘ |
| valuation | about 9 billion US dollars at peak ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Theranos Description of subject: Theranos was a now-defunct health technology company founded by Elizabeth Holmes that became infamous for falsely claiming to revolutionize blood testing and for its central role in a major corporate fraud scandal.
Referenced by (15)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Theranos
subject linked to:
Taylor Dunn
subject linked to:
Victoria Thompson
subject linked to:
ABC News podcast The Dropout