As far as scandals are concerned, there is no bigger fall from grace than a high-profile scammer. This year alone, we’ve seen the likes of Anna Delvey, Sarma Melngailis and Elizabeth Holmes put on blast for their disgraced swindles and conspiracies to commit fraud.
And while their tales of true crime may be getting the TV treatment, the true extent of their corruption is usually kept a secret…until now.
Taking to TikTok, Elizabeth Holmes’ former executive assistant, Leona Marlene, is revealing the truth about her time at disgraced medical startup Theranos and giving us a glimpse into just how ruthless the former Silicon Valley darling really is.
Strap yourselves in, because the truth is stranger than fiction.
In Hulu’s series The Dropout, there are some moments that literally have you lost for words because of how confounding and perplexing Holmes and her co-conspirator Sunny Balwani’s behavior is.
From their wild obsession with success (and green juice) to the fact that employees aren’t allowed to fraternize with each other, Marlene is shedding light on just how truthful these elements actually are.
Marlene, who worked at the company from 2012 to 2014, confirms that the story is actually pretty reliable, except for Elizabeth’s “cringe dancing to Lil Wayne”.
Marlene continues to explain that the executive assistant position was her first job out of college and despite sharing her experience on the social media platform she’s still “mildly terrified of them” and she’ll still get in trouble for what she’s doing. It’s no wonder their employee retention levels were so low.
In another video, Marlene revealed her hours of work were 9AM till 8PM Monday through Friday and we’re calling the fair-work ombudsman on her behalf. She also shared her rate was $18 per hour, but ended up making over six figures because of all her overtime payments.
Marlene also describes the bizarre tasks that she had to perform as Elizabeth’s assistant, including two trips to a health food store each day to pick up green juice.
As for some of the red flags she noticed during her tenure? Marlene describes one interaction with a “certain COO” where she was wearing black nail polish and he allegedly told her to get out his office with “those nasty nails” and wasn’t allowed back in his office until she had removed the polish. You actually can’t make this stuff up.
Marlene doesn’t go into any further detail about her experiences on her channel because she wants to make sure her stories “don’t impact anyone that was affected by Theranos”.
Either way, with Holmes’ sentencing trial coming up, here’s hoping more former employees will come out of the woodwork and tell their truth.
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