Theranos Under Investigation by Federal Criminal Investigation And Securities and Exchange Commission

By Staff Writer | Apr 19, 2016 03:55 AM EDT

Theranos, the blood-testing laboratory is under the investigation of the Federal Criminal Investigation.  The company stated that the Justice Department requested factual statements and that the investigation was active.

Theranos was founded by Elizabeth Holmes, a dropout from Stanford University, known to become a symbol of how technology could completely change health care after affirming to have discovered a way of conducting blood tests from a single finger prick at a portion of the cost of conventional laboratory. The company was valued at $9 billion and Holmes became a self-made billionaire, according to The New York Times.   

The blood-testing lab start up based in Palo Alto, California is now under surveillance of the Securities and Exchange Commission including the Attorney's Office for the northern district of California.

"The investigations by the SEC and the U.S. Attorney's Office, which began following the publication of certain news articles, are focused on requesting documents and ongoing," the statement read. "The company continues to work closely with regulators and is cooperating fully with all investigations," as quoted by USA TODAY.

Due to many issues regarding its laboratory inaccurate results, many offers and investments have exited Theranos doors before they can even enter.  Officials of Walgreens will no longer pursue their partnership expansion with Theranos.  The Food and Drug Administration distinguished nanotainer as unapproved device for collecting blood and gave Theranos approval to use its technology for one test which is the herpes simplex 1.

Safeway made an announcement that it would dump its plan of developing Theranos centers in hundreds of its stores.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services discovered Therano's California lab to be deficient and would produce defective test results.

"The company continues to work closely with regulators and is cooperating fully with all investigations," a Theranos spokeswoman said.

According to Theranos, the Departments of Health of Pennsylvania and Arizona and the FDA investigations have already been closed, says Fortune.

Theranos has been facing with issues accusing the company of defective results coming from its deficient laboratories for blood-testing and has been investigated by different regulators and agencies.

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