Patrick Oneill became Chief Creative Officer for the now-defunct Theranos brand in April 2014. His biography states that “Patrick worked directly with founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, in creating all aspects of the Theranos brand.”, which means he was a key willing participant in one of the most spectacular corporate frauds in business history. Oneill created remarkably successful messaging for Theranos that convinced the business and scientific communities that it could perform blood tests that required very small amounts of blood and that could be performed rapidly and accurately using compact automated devices. These claims were proved entirely false, and in the trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, it became known that company leadership (which included Oneill) knew full well the product did not work.

At hiring, Oneill opted for a compensation package that paid $50,000 annually, plus sizable grants of Theranos corporate stock.

Realizing he could not live on an annual salary of $50,000, Oneill turned to a longtime friend with an offer wherein 50% of his corporate stock grants would be exchanged for cash. Based on glowing representations made by Oneill, the friend advanced $1,080,000 from 2014 to 2017, believing the stock would become substantially more valuable than its inital valuation. Of course, the Theranos scam was exposed before the company went public, meaning Oneill’s friend received nothing in exchange for the monetary advances.

At this point, the cash advanced by the friend could be considered a bad investment and that would be that, except for a significant wrinkle : unknown to the friend, Oneill’s compensation package changed in May 2016 to provide a full cash salary. While Oneill was collecting the cash salary, he also continued to collect the advances from his friend until April 2017, when the friend learned about the deception from a third party. Realizing he was caught red-handed, Oneill agreed to settle with the friend for $360,000.

End of story? Not quite. As Theranos imploded, it became known that Oneill was aware that the options he purported to offer his friend were affirmatively unassignable and non-transferable. It also became clear that Oneill was accepting cash payments from his friend all the while knowing the product was a sham. After the crisis management team, led by Oneill, failed to contain the damage, he agreed to a severance payment of $87,500 to leave the sinking Theranos ship. There was, unsurprisingly, no disclosure of this payment, nor an offer to share it, made to the friend.

In short, the plan concocted by Oneill to bring in enough money to maintain his lifestyle was based entirely on fraudulent claims. As the scope and audacity of the scam became clear, the friend, understandably, made overtures to Oneill for a more equitable settlement. The response, to date, has been deafening silence, confirming a total lack of good will on the part of Oneill.