来源：《卫报》
原文刊登日期：2022年1月5日
The story of how Elizabeth Holmes came to defraud some of the richest and most powerful investors in the US, only to end up this week facing decades in prison, is so epic and bizarre that it is no wonder it has already flowered into a prize-winning book and a popular podcast, and is reportedly on its way to becoming a Hollywood film, with Ms Holmes to be played by Jennifer Lawrence, no less. But it is more than superb entertainment; it is a fable about how our financial system is badly broken.
伊丽莎白·霍姆斯欺骗了美国一些最富有、最有权势的投资者，最终在本周面临数十年监禁。这个故事是如此史诗般的离奇，难怪由它发展出一本获奖的书和一个广受欢迎的播客，并据报道居然有一部好莱坞电影正在筹划，霍姆斯女士将由詹妮弗·劳伦斯扮演。但它不仅仅是极佳的娱乐；这是一个关于我们的金融体系如何严重崩溃的寓言。
At only 19, Ms Holmes decided to reinvent a fundamental part of healthcare: blood testing. No more painful pinpricks, nor anxious waits for results. She dropped out of Stanford to start Theranos in 2003, and in short order pulled in some of the biggest investors in Silicon Valley, and turned her startup into a firm employing 800 staff and valued at £6.6bn.
霍姆斯年仅19岁时，决定彻底改造医疗保健的一个基本部分：血液检测。不再有痛苦的针刺，也不再焦急地等待结果。2003年，她从斯坦福大学(Stanford)退学，创办了Theranos，并在短时间内吸引了硅谷一些最大的投资者，并将她的初创公司变成了一家拥有800名员工、估值66亿英镑的独角兽。
There was just one problem: the miracle technology was junk. It did not do what it said on the tin. The deception was first exposed in 2015, the company dissolved in 2018 and last August its founder began a four-month long trial. A jury found her guilty this week of four counts of fraud, each carrying a maximum term of 20 years. Ms Holmes is still only 37.
只有一个问题：这种神奇的技术是垃圾。这种技术没有达到自己宣称的效果。欺诈行为于2015年首次被曝光，该公司于2018年解散，去年8月，开始了对其创始人霍姆斯为期4个月的审判。本周，陪审团裁定她四项欺诈罪名成立，每项最高刑期为20年。霍姆斯女士现在只有37岁。
When the going was good, she could count among her backers and board members powerbrokers such as Henry Kissinger and George Shultz. The trial revealed how far networking of contacts served to deceive the supposed smart money, who asked few questions but were satisfied instead with a great backstory and the glory of the names. Investors gave Ms Holmes their millions and sent notes thanking her for taking them. Far from a few suckers getting cheated, this was a political-financial-media elite disastrously short on self-doubt.
当进展顺利时，她可以把亨利·基辛格和乔治·舒尔茨等权力掮客算作她的支持者和董事会成员。这次审判揭示了人脉网络在多大程度上欺骗了所谓的“行家”，这些人问的问题很少，但却对一个伟大的背景故事和名人的荣耀感到满意。投资者给了霍姆斯数亿美元，并给她寄去了感谢信，感谢她收下了这些钱。这绝不是几个傻瓜上当受骗，而是政治金融媒体精英极度缺乏自我怀疑。
As with Jeffrey Epstein, it required dogged journalism to do the serious investigation and expose the truth. Yet when the Wall Street Journal’s John Carreyrou did ask the necessary questions, Ms Holmes admitted in court that she took revenge by going straight to the newspaper’s owner, Rupert Murdoch – who just happened to be a serious investor in Theranos. The WSJ ran the stories anyway, but another organ under different ownership might not have done.
就像对待杰弗里·爱泼斯坦一样，这需要顽强的新闻工作者进行严肃的调查并揭露真相。然而，当《华尔街日报》的约翰•卡雷鲁确实提出了必要的问题时，霍姆斯在法庭上承认，她直接去找《华尔街日报》的所有者鲁珀特·默多克对卡雷鲁进行了报复。默多克恰好是Theranos的一个重要投资者。《华尔街日报》还是刊登了这些报道，但如果换成另一家拥有不同所有权的机构，可能就不会这么做了。
Finally, America and other rich countries have spent years running record-low interest rates and quantitative easing programmes, which have pushed the cost of capital close to zero. This has not sparked a wave of innovation in socially vital technologies, but pumped more air into asset bubbles. And in the case of Theranos, all it has done is provide the kindling for a bonfire of wealth – money that could have been spent more wisely, invested more usefully and done some actual good.
最后，美国和其他富裕国家多年来一直在实施创纪录的低利率和量化宽松计划，这使得资本成本接近于零。这并没有在社会关键技术领域引发一波创新浪潮，反而给资产泡沫注入了更多的空气。就Theranos而言，它所做的一切只是为财富的篝火点燃了一根火种——这些钱本可以花得更明智、投资得更有意义，并做一些实际的好事。