John Carreyrou - Reporter Who Broke the Theranos Story and Author of the Bestseller Published by Knopf, Bad Blood - Available for Interviews

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- John Carreyrou, the reporter who broke the story on Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, is back in the news with the upcoming release of Alex Gibney's HBO documentary, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (premiering on March 18^th). Carreyrou is the pivot in the HBO documentary – his voice (and reporting) presaging the fall of Theranos. The film offers a compelling look at both the hubris of Silicon Valley and the "fake it to you make it" ethos of companies situated there. 

The hubris of Silicon Valley – Facebook's ongoing privacy crises; Amazon thinking it could set up HQ2 in Queens without consequence – has a human impact. There is no better example of this than the story of Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes. The Theranos story begins with a bold vision on the part of Holmes: to create a portable mini lab that could capture accurate results from a drop or two of blood pricked from a finger. It was a revolutionary conceit with just one problem: the device Theranos created did not work. But this was an admission she was not willing to make. Instead, Holmes was hailed as "the next Steve Jobs," dazzling investors such as Larry Ellison, Rupert Murdoch, and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos; raising hundreds of millions of dollars; enlisting former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former senators Sam Nunn and Bill Frist, and former Secretary of Defense James Mattis to sit on the company's board; all the while conducting faulty tests on human subjects. In June 2018, Holmes was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of conspiracy and nine counts of wire fraud.  

BAD BLOOD has sold over 500,000 copies to date and has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for 29 weeks. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes directed by Oscar^® winner Alex Gibney, will premiere on HBO March 18^th. Carreyrou is a critical figure in the company's downfall, having interviewed more than 150 people, including more than 60 former Theranos employees, for BAD BLOOD, and reported extensively on the company in the pages of The Wall Street Journal.

Carreyrou is an essential voice in this story, and available for interviews.

PRESS CONTACTS:

Paul Bogaards
EVP, Executive Director of Publicity
212-572-2177
[email protected]

Emily Reardon
Publicity Assistant
212-572-2018
[email protected] 

PRAISE FOR BAD BLOOD:

"[A] chilling, third-person narrative of how Holmes came up with a fantastic idea that made her, for a while, the most successful woman entrepreneur in Silicon valley… Prizewinning Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou tells [this story] virtually to perfection… [His] description of Holmes as a manic leader who turned coolly hostile when challenged is ripe material for a psychologist… His recounting of his efforts to track down sources—many of whom were being intimidated by Theranos's bullying lawyer, David Boies—reads like a West Coast version of All the President's Men."
—Roger Lowenstein, The New York Times Book Review

"You will not want to put this riveting, masterfully reported book down. No matter how bad you think the Theranos story was, you'll learn that the reality was actually far worse."
—Bethany McLean, bestselling coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils Are Here

"Carreyrou blends lucid descriptions of Theranos's technology and its failures with a vivid portrait of its toxic culture and its supporters' delusional boosterism. The result is a bracing cautionary tale about visionary entrepreneurship gone very wrong."
—Publishers Weekly (Starred)

"Eye-opening... A vivid, cinematic portrayal of serpentine Silicon Valley corruption... A deep investigative report on the sensationalistic downfall of multibillion-dollar Silicon Valley biotech startup Theranos. Basing his findings on hundreds of interviews with people inside and outside the company, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Carreyrou rigorously examines the seamy details behind the demise of Theranos and its creator, Elizabeth Holmes… [Carreyrou] brilliantly captures the interpersonal melodrama, hidden agendas, gross misrepresentations, nepotism, and a host of delusions and lies that further fractured the company's reputation and halted its rise."
—Kirkus

"A great and at times almost unbelievable story of scandalous fraud, surveillance, and legal intimidation at the highest levels of American corporate power. . . . The story of Theranos may be the biggest case of corporate fraud since Enron. But it's also the story of how a lot of powerful men were fooled by a remarkably brazen liar."
—Yashar Ali, New York Magazine

"In Bad Blood, acclaimed investigative journalist John Carreyrou, who broke the story in 2015, presents comprehensive evidence of the fraud perpetrated by Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes... He unveils many dark secrets of Theranos that have not previously been laid bare…  The combination of these brave whistle-blowers, and a tenacious journalist who interviewed 150 people (including 60 former employees) makes for a veritable page-turner."
—Eric Topol, Nature

"Engrossing… Bad Blood boasts movie-scene detail… Theranos, Carreyrou writes, was a revolving door, as Holmes and Balwani fired anyone who voiced even tentative doubts… What's frightening is how easy it is to imagine a different outcome, one in which the company's blood-testing devices continued to proliferate. That the story played out as it did is a testament to the many individuals who spoke up, at great personal risk."
—Jennifer Couzin-Frankel, Science

SOURCE Knopf