Alleged billionaire fraudster Elizabeth Holmes has Houston ties. These are the city's biggest scams

>> Click through the following gallery to see some of the biggest frauds and scams in Houston history. >> Click through the following gallery to see some of the biggest frauds and scams in Houston history. Photo: Houston Chronicle Photo: Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 21 Caption Close Alleged billionaire fraudster Elizabeth Holmes has Houston ties. These are the city's biggest scams 1 / 21 Back to Gallery

Elizabeth Holmes, once the world's youngest woman billionaire, is no longer a mystery.

In 2003, at the age of 19, she dropped out of Stanford University to create Theranos, a privately owned health technology corporation that focused on blood testing.

She started raising hundreds of millions of dollars from powerful donors, such as former Secretaries of State Howard Schulz and Henry Kissinger, as well as Silicon Valley giants like media titan Rupert Murdoch, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and several members of the Walton family (which founded Walmart), among others.

Now, she's facing federal fraud charges as a result of allegations that she engaged in a multi-million-dollar scheme to defraud investors.

She also has significant ties to the city of Houston, which begin with her parents.

Click through the gallery above to see some of the most notable frauds and scams with Houston ties.

Holmes' father, Christian Holmes IV, worked for Enron as well as prominent government jobs around Washington D.C.

She also graduated from St. John's School in the River Oaks Neighborhood of Houston.

Chron.com reached out to several of Holmes' former St. John's classmates, but none would go on the record to discuss her.

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In "The Dropout" podcast on ABC, Megan Long, a former classmate Holmes at St. John's School, said the Theranos founder had a dogged determination.

"We knew her, and the shock and sadness of watching it all play out has just been huge for the community," Megan Long, a former classmate of Holmes, told ABC News' Rebecca Jarvis on "The Dropout" podcast.

The information collected from the stories above came from a number of reports from publications such as The Houston Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, CNBC.com, Bloomgberg.com, Forbes.com, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, ABC News, as well as the recently released HBO documentary 'The Inventor: The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley."



Peter Dawson is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | Peter.Dawson@chron.com | NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.