Elizabeth Holmes called herself the 'best businessperson of the year' and worried about luxury 'distractions' from her work in newly released messages to ex-boyfriend Ramesh Balwani before their blood testing company Theranos imploded in 2018.
'My new life as of this night and forever more: - total confidence in myself best business person of the year – focus – details excellence – don’t give what anyone thinks – engage employees in meetings by stories and making it about them (ie prepare well),' Holmes texted 'Sunny' Balwani in November 2014 while discussing the full moon that evening.
'No response?' she wrote 10 minutes later. Balwani answered: 'Awesome. U r listening and paying attention…'
The texts are part of 600 pages of Skype and text messages obtained by CNBC as Holmes stands trial on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Holmes has since married and had a child with 27-year-old hotel heir Billy Evans, but messages show that the entrepreneur and Balwani were once madly-in-love business partners, even as she plans to accuse him of abuse as part of her defense.
Holmes faces 11 counts of fraud and conspiracy for allegedly defrauding investors with lofty promises of a revolutionary finger-pricking blood testing device called the 'Edison'
Holmes and Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani, her older ex-boyfriend and the COO of Theranos, were worried about the status of their company as they planned lavish vacations
Balwani was the chief operating officer of Theranos, a company that promised to revolutionize blood testing with a simple finger-prick, when the Wall Street Journal began digging into their too-good-to-be-true claims in 2015.
At its peak, the company was valued at $10 billion and landed its young CEO Holmes on the covers of Forbes and Fortune magazines.
Balwani's trial on the same charges as Holmes will begin in January.
The trove of messages is an insight into the life of luxury that the pair was suddenly able to afford while courting high-value investors.
In group text chain from April 2015, Holmes's brother Christian messaged her and Balwani about a trip to Las Vegas.
The pair was considering the $3K-a-night presidential suite at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas
'The Vegas trip is such a distraction. Bad timing,' Balwani said in an April 2015 exchange as the company was losing money and top talent, according to financial reports and ex-employees
'Not sure if these are options but from dan : presidential suite at four seasons $3k,mandarin apex suite view of strip $3400 or presidential $15k, or encore junior suite $700 view of golf course.'
Balwani and Holmes were worried about the timing of the trip, which came at the same time that Theranos was bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars and top talent, according to financial reports and a former employee.
'People would just disappear and they were leaving without jobs, it was clear the company was grounded to a halt,' the former Theranos employee told CNBC. 'That’s a huge red flag.'
Balwani texted Holmes: 'The Vegas trip is such a distraction. Bad timing. But the guys bought everything non refundable. So we will do it. But then I don’t want distractions until we win.'
'Then let’s focus on it in our room, do dinner, and go back early,' Holmes replied.
Holmes, next to then-VP Joe Biden during a visit to Theranos in 2015, bragged about herself in texts: 'Total confidence in myself best business person of the year – focus – details excellence'
'I don’t like distractions ever.'
She continued: 'Dinner can try the three star Michelin French in mgm - can just try all the ones that are top nationally rated and see what we get.'
In another exchange, Balwani said 'Got table at XS dance [floor],' and later, 'Getting private security for u”.
'Private security?' Holmes asked.
'One dedicated security guy with us all night,' Balwani responded.
Just a few months later, a Wall Street Journalist John Carreyrou would reveal how Theranos performed the 'vast majority of its tests with traditional machines bought from companies like Siemens AG.'
Holmes and Theranos are the subject of the 2019 HBO documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.
The film reveals how Holmes attracted powerful men to invest in her company and believe in her vision, going as far as allegedly deepening her voice and wearing black turtlenecks as an ode to Apple's Steve Jobs.
Holmes and her attorneys plan to argue that some of her inflated statements about the company's technology were the result of 'intimate partner abuse' inflicted by Balwani, according to court documents.
But text messages
