Elizabeth Holmes’ Father: Who Is Christian Holmes IV and What Was His Role in the Enron Corporate Fraud?

The upcoming docuseries "The Dropout" is a dramatization of the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO and founder of blood testing technology company Theranos, who was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud investors and three wire fraud counts tied to specific investors last January.

An investigation in 2015 exposed the company's wrongdoings per Men's Health. Theranos only conducted "roughly a dozen" tests using its blood-testing equipment, with suspicious results.

Theranos' claims were also found to be exaggerated since it was reliant on devices made by third-party blood testing companies.

According to Yahoo! Finance, the docuseries shows the teenage years of Elizabeth (played by Amanda Seyfried), wherein she saw how her dad (played by Michel Gill) watched the news about the collapse of his company Enron.

Who is Elizabeth Holmes' father?

Christian Holmes is her father, who came from an affluent family.

Elizabeth's father is a descendant of the Fleischmann family, who established Fleischmann's Yeast. And while the family wasn't super-wealthy, they were considered well-off.

Christian Holmes worked for several federal institutions before relocating his family to Houston, Texas, where he held the vice president position at Enron.

The energy company was well-known before it went bankrupt in December 2001. According to the FBI at the time, the company declared bankruptcy after scamming investors.

Due to the gravity of the offenses, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and prosecutors from the Department of Justice formed the Enron Task Force.

The company was fined $164 million, the majority of which was used to compensate victims. The FBI reported that twenty-two employees were convicted for their participation in the scheme.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Christian went on to work for the US Agency for International Development, where he supervised the company's worldwide water supply and sanitation projects, helping people get access to clean water.

He has been a senior advisor at The Boston Consulting Group since February 2017, according to his page, which did not mention his involvement with Enron. It indicates that he supports "project development and implementation in the areas of environmental protection, international economic development, health, and humanitarian assistance."

Holmes Family Pride

In 'The Dropout' podcast produced by ABC Radio, family friend Joseph Fuisz disclosed that the Holmes took pride in their background and took the "mantle of this family history very, very seriously."

Fuisz believes that Elizabeth's parents deeply yearned for the "days of yore" when the family belonged to the richest in America. "And I think Elizabeth channeled that, and at a young age," he said per Women's Health.

In a past interview with the New Yorker, Elizabeth said that, as a child, she was inspired by the stories of humanitarian service and grew up listening to "stories about greatness and about people deciding not to spend their lives on something purposeful" and how their actions impact their character and "quality of life."