This was originally published at re: The Auditors. Back in October I wrote here that a very long list of sophisticated investors including my ultimate boss, Rupert Murdoch of News Corp., and business partners like Walgreen’s made the decision to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the private start-up Theranos but didn’t insist on seeing audited financial statements first. From its incorporation in 2003 to its shutdown in August of 2018, Theranos operated on a cash-basis and distributed unaudited and allegedly made-up financial information to investors.