security. He was the one who’d done the forensic analysis of the
computer evidence for the Michael O’Connell lawsuit.
Planning the move had taken up a big chunk of Matt’s time over the
past several months. On Thursday, January 31, 2008, everything
finally seemed ready. The movers were scheduled to arrive first thing
the next morning to haul everything away.
But at four that afternoon, Matt got pulled into a conference room
with Michael Esquivel and Gary Frenzel. Elizabeth was conferenced in
by phone from Switzerland, where she was conducting a second
demonstration for Novartis some fourteen months after the faked one
that had led to Henry Mosley’s departure. She’d just learned that the
landlord would charge them rent for the month of February if they
didn’t clear the premises by midnight. There was no way she was going
to let that happen, she said.
She instructed Matt to call the moving company and have the
movers come immediately. Matt thought the odds that would happen
were very low but agreed to try. He stepped out of the conference room
and made the call. The moving company’s dispatcher laughed at him.
No sir, rescheduling a corporate move at the eleventh hour wasn’t
possible, he was told.
Elizabeth was undeterred. She told Matt to call another moving
company she had once used and to give them the job. Unlike the first
company, this one wasn’t unionized. She was sure it would be more
flexible. But when Matt called the second moving company and
explained the situation, a person there strongly advised him to drop
the idea. Unionized moving companies were all mob controlled, the
person said. What Theranos was proposing to do risked devolving into
violence.
Even after hearing that sobering answer, Elizabeth wouldn’t let it go.
Matt and Gary tried to reason with her by citing other obstacles. Gary
raised the issue of their stockpile of blood samples. Supposing they
managed to get a crew to come that day; the movers wouldn’t unload
everything at the new address until tomorrow, he pointed out. How
would they keep the blood at the proper temperature in the meantime?
Elizabeth said they could use refrigerated trucks and keep them