True-crime documentaries and podcasts have exploded in recent years. As marketers and pundits decry the shrinking attention spans of young people, many have dedicated hours to the hunt for serial killers or the cases of the wrongly accused.
A niche of the true-crime genre, corporate fraud also has found a growing audience. The Madoff Ponzi scheme, the Oxycontin-peddling Sackler family and “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli have inspired their own cottage industries.
But, as in every corner of the entertainment industry, nothing beats a case “starring” a young, preferably blond, woman. Tonight’s “American Greed” (9 p.m., CNBC), the series’ 200th episode, focuses on Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of the blood-testing startup Theranos, who was briefly the darling of Silicon Valley and the venture-capital set before it was revealed the technology she was touting didn’t actually work.
Before her downfall, Holmes spun a narrative that attracted powerful sponsors as well as investors. Bold-faced names associated with Holmes and her company included former Secretaries of State George Schultz and Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, former President Bill Clinton and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Holmes was indicted just last week, not long after the conviction of Jeffrey Epstein’s friend and partner, Ghislaine Maxwell….
