In 2022, after Elizabeth Holmes had been convicted of defrauding investors in her blood testing company Theranos, and was awaiting sentencing, Palantir board member Lauren Friedman Stat wrote to the judge to defend her longtime college friend’s character.

“She seeks to do the right thing, always,” Stat wrote, calling Holmes one of her ‘closest friends’.

Stat’s support goes beyond character reference. She cofounded the new blood-testing startup Holmes’ partner Billy Evans is shown working on in the new Elizabeth Holmes documentary, the company’s former CTO, Joseph LaChapelle, confirmed to Forbes. Stat has said her physician husband David Stat also helped to found the company, and described it as a way to give Holmes something to look forward to during her prison sentence, a different person who has spoken to her told Forbes.

The company, Haemanthus, is developing a device that, like Theranos, analyzes blood and other biological samples, though the........

© Forbes