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Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes started serving her 11-year sentence on May 30.
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John Carreyrou’s “Bad Blood” said Holmes ordered communal dinners, helping keep staff working late.
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Staff surveillance reportedly involved monitoring arrivals and having assistants add them on Facebook.
Being monitored constantly is something Elizabeth Holmes will have to get used to after finally beginning her 11-year sentence on May 30.
According to John Carreyrou’s book “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup,” the Theranos founder was obsessed with monitoring how many hours her employees were putting in, and would find ways to keep them working late.
One of these approaches involved getting dinner delivered to the Theranos office every night. However, Holmes timed the delivery between 8 p.m. and 8.30 p.m., meaning staff often weren’t leaving work until 10 p.m., according to the book.
Carreyrou’s reporting for The Wall Street Journal exposed Theranos’ faulty blood testing equipment. For the book he spoke to dozens of insiders at the company that was once valued at $9 billion.
Holmes was found guilty in January 2022 on four counts of fraud and sentenced to just over 11 years in prison.
Ordering communal dinners was reportedly one of several unusual tactics Holmes, who tried to model herself on Steve Jobs, would use to both inspire and intimidate Theranos employees.
According to the book, Holmes’ assistants would track the arrival and departure time of workers each day, while IT staff would monitor the software being on employees’ computers. She also had her team add employees on Facebook and tell Holmes what they were posting, Carreyrou wrote.
The surveillance state Holmes appeared to run at Theranos may not be too far removed from her new life at a federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas.
According to The Journal and an inmate handbook for the Bryan camp, she will be woken at 6 a.m. daily, and face five headcounts a day.
Holmes’ lawyers didn’t respond to a request for comment from Insider.
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