getting in touch with other members of the board, but none would
respond to his calls.
Unsure what to do, Avie consulted a friend who was a lawyer.
Thanks to his Apple wealth, his personal balance sheet was bigger than
Theranos’s, so the prospect of costly litigation didn’t really scare him.
But after he filled his friend in on everything that had happened, the
friend asked a question that helped him put the situation in
perspective: “Given everything you now know about this company, do
you really want to own more of it?”
When Avie thought about it, the answer was no. Besides, it was the
season of giving and rejoicing. He decided to let the matter rest and to
put Theranos behind him. But before doing so, he wrote a parting
letter to Don and emailed it to his assistants, along with a copy of the
waiver the company had pressured him to sign.
The brutal tactics used to get him to sign the waiver, he wrote, had
confirmed “some of the worse concerns” he’d raised with Don about
the way the company was being run. He didn’t blame Michael
Esquivel, he added, because it was clear the attorney was just acting on
orders from above. He closed the letter with
I do hope you will fully inform the rest of the Board as to
what happened here. They deserve to know that by not
going along 100% “with the program” they risk retribution
from the Company/Elizabeth.
...
Warmly,
Avie Tevanian