title: Iraq War

text: The Turkish parliament approved a resolution permitting the military to pursue the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan. In November, Turkish gunships attacked parts of northern Iraq in the first such attack by Turkish aircraft since the border tensions escalated. Another series of attacks in mid-December hit PKK targets in the Qandil, Zap, Avashin and Hakurk regions. The latest series of attacks involved at least 50 aircraft and artillery and Kurdish officials reported one civilian killed and two wounded.


title: Iraq War

text: Additionally, weapons that were given to Iraqi security forces by the US military were being recovered by authorities in Turkey after being used by PKK in that state.


title: Iraq War

text: On 17 September 2007, the Iraqi government announced that it was revoking the license of the US security firm Blackwater USA over the firm's involvement in the killing of eight civilians, including a woman and an infant, in a firefight that followed a car bomb explosion near a State Department motorcade.


title: Iraq War

text: Throughout 2008, US officials and independent think tanks began to point to improvements in the security situation, as measured by key statistics. According to the US Defense Department, in December 2008 the "overall level of violence" in the country had dropped 80% since before the surge began in January 2007, and the country's murder rate had dropped to prewar levels. They also pointed out that the casualty figure for US forces in 2008 was 314 against a figure of 904 in 2007.


title: Iraq War

text: According to the Brookings Institution, Iraqi civilian fatalities numbered 490 in November 2008 as against 3,500 in January 2007, whereas attacks against the coalition numbered somewhere between 200 and 300 per week in the latter half of 2008, as opposed to a peak of nearly 1,600 in summer 2007. The number of Iraqi security forces killed was under 100 per month in the second half of 2008, from a high of 200 to 300 in the summer of 2007.


title: Iraq War

text: Meanwhile, the proficiency of the Iraqi military increased as it launched a spring offensive against Shia militias, which Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had previously been criticized for allowing to operate. This began with a March operation against the Mehdi Army in Basra, which led to fighting in Shia areas up and down the country, especially in the Sadr City district of Baghdad. By October, the British officer in charge of Basra said that since the operation, the town had become "secure" and had a murder rate comparable to Manchester in England. The US military also said there had been a decrease of about a quarter in the quantity of Iranian-made explosives found in Iraq in 2008, possibly indicating a change in Iranian policy.


title: Iraq War

text: Progress in Sunni areas continued after members of the Awakening movement were transferred from US military to Iraqi control. In May, the Iraqi army – backed by coalition support – launched an offensive in Mosul, the last major Iraqi stronghold of al-Qaeda. Despite detaining thousands of individuals, the offensive failed to lead to major long-term security improvements in Mosul. At the end of the year, the city remained a major flashpoint.


title: Iraq War

text: In the regional dimension, the ongoing conflict between Turkey and PKK intensified on 21 February, when Turkey launched a ground attack into the Quandeel Mountains of Northern Iraq. In the nine-day-long operation, around 10,000 Turkish troops advanced up to 25  km into Northern Iraq. This was the first substantial ground incursion by Turkish forces since 1995.


title: Iraq War

text: Shortly after the incursion began, both the Iraqi cabinet and the Kurdistan regional government condemned Turkey's actions and called for the immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops from the region. Turkish troops withdrew on 29 February. The fate of the Kurds and the future of the ethnically diverse city of Kirkuk remained a contentious issue in Iraqi politics.


title: Iraq War

text: US military officials met these trends with cautious optimism as they approached what they described as the "transition" embodied in the US–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, which was negotiated throughout 2008. The commander of the coalition, US General Raymond T. Odierno, noted that "in military terms, transitions are the most dangerous time" in December 2008.


title: Iraq War

text: At the end of March, the Iraqi Army, with Coalition air support, launched an offensive, dubbed "Charge of the Knights", in Basra to secure the area from militias. This was the first major operation where the Iraqi Army did not have direct combat support from conventional coalition ground troops. The offensive was opposed by the Mahdi Army, one of the militias, which controlled much of the region. Fighting quickly spread to other parts of Iraq: including Sadr City, Al Kut, Al Hillah and others. During the fighting Iraqi forces met stiff resistance from militiamen in Basra to the point that the Iraqi military offensive slowed to a crawl, with the high attrition rates finally forcing the Sadrists to the negotiating table.


title: Iraq War

text: Following intercession by the Iranian government, al‑Sadr ordered a ceasefire on 30 March 2008. The militiamen kept their weapons.


title: Iraq War

text: By 12 May 2008, Basra "residents overwhelmingly reported a substantial improvement in their everyday lives" according to "The New York Times". "Government forces have now taken over Islamic militants' headquarters and halted the death squads and 'vice enforcers' who attacked women, Christians, musicians, alcohol sellers and anyone suspected of collaborating with Westerners", according to the report; however, when asked how long it would take for lawlessness to resume if the Iraqi army left, one resident replied, "one day".


title: Iraq War

text: In late April roadside bombings continued to rise from a low in January—from 114 bombings to more than 250, surpassing the May 2007 high.


title: Iraq War

text: Speaking before Congress on 8 April 2008, General David Petraeus urged delaying troop withdrawals, saying, "I've repeatedly noted that we haven't turned any corners, we haven't seen any lights at the end of the tunnel," referencing the comments of then-President Bush and former Vietnam-era General William Westmoreland. When asked by the Senate if reasonable people could disagree on the way forward, Petraeus said, "We fight for the right of people to have other opinions."


title: Iraq War

text: Upon questioning by then Senate committee chair Joe Biden, Ambassador Crocker admitted that Al‑Qaeda in Iraq was less important than the Al Qaeda organization led by Osama bin Laden along the Afghan-Pakistani border. Lawmakers from both parties complained that US taxpayers are carrying Iraq's burden as it earns billions of dollars in oil revenues.


title: Iraq War

text: Iraq became one of the top purchasers of US military equipment with their army trading its AK‑47 assault rifles for the US M‑16 and M‑4 rifles, among other equipment. In 2008 alone, Iraq accounted for more than of the US weapon sales to foreign countries (not including the potential F-16 fighter planes.).


title: Iraq War

text: Iraq sought 36 F‑16s, the most sophisticated weapons system Iraq has attempted to purchase. The Pentagon notified Congress that it had approved the sale of 24 American attack helicopters to Iraq, valued at as much as $2.4 billion. Including the helicopters, Iraq announced plans to purchase at least in US tanks and armored vehicles, transport planes, and other battlefield equipment and services. Over the summer, the Defense Department announced that the Iraqi government wanted to order more than 400 armored vehicles and other equipment worth up to , and six C-130J transport planes, worth up to . From 2005 to 2008, the United States had completed approximately $20 billion in arms sales agreements with Iraq.


title: Iraq War

text: The US–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement was approved by the Iraqi government on 4 December 2008. It established that US combat forces would withdraw from Iraqi cities by 30 June 2009, and that all US forces would be completely out of Iraq by 31 December 2011. The pact was subject to possible negotiations which could have delayed withdrawal and a referendum scheduled for mid-2009 in Iraq, which might have required all US forces to completely leave by the middle of 2010. The pact required criminal charges for holding prisoners over 24 hours, and required a warrant for searches of homes and buildings that are not related to combat.


title: Iraq War

text: US contractors working for US forces were to be subject to Iraqi criminal law, while contractors working for the State Department and other US agencies may retain their immunity. If US forces commit still undecided "major premeditated felonies" while off-duty and off-base, they will be subject to the still undecided procedures laid out by a joint US‑Iraq committee if the United States certifies the forces were off-duty.


title: Iraq War

text: Some Americans have discussed "loopholes" and some Iraqis have said they believe parts of the pact remain a "mystery". US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates predicted that after 2011 he expected to see "perhaps several tens of thousands of American troops" as part of a residual force in Iraq.


title: Iraq War

text: Several groups of Iraqis protested the passing of the SOFA accord as prolonging and legitimizing the occupation. Tens of thousands of Iraqis burned an effigy of George W. Bush in a central Baghdad square where US troops five years previously organized a tearing down of a statue of Saddam Hussein. Some Iraqis expressed skeptical optimism that the US would completely end its presence by 2011. On 4 December 2008, Iraq's presidential council approved the security pact.


title: Iraq War

text: A representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al‑Sistani expressed concern with the ratified version of the pact and noted that the government of Iraq has no authority to control the transfer of occupier forces into and out of Iraq, no control of shipments and that the pact grants the occupiers immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts. He said that Iraqi rule in the country is not complete while the occupiers are present, but that ultimately the Iraqi people would judge the pact in a referendum. Thousands of Iraqis have gathered weekly after Friday prayers and shouted anti‑US and anti-Israeli slogans protesting the security pact between Baghdad and Washington. A protester said that despite the approval of the Interim Security pact, the Iraqi people would break it in a referendum next year.


title: Iraq War

text: On 1 January 2009, the United States handed control of the Green Zone and Saddam Hussein's presidential palace to the Iraqi government in a ceremonial move described by the country's prime minister as a restoration of Iraq's sovereignty. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he would propose 1 January be declared national "Sovereignty Day". "This palace is the symbol of Iraqi sovereignty and by restoring it, a real message is directed to all Iraqi people that Iraqi sovereignty has returned to its natural status", al‑Maliki said.


title: Iraq War

text: The US military attributed a decline in reported civilian deaths to several factors including the US‑led "troop surge", the growth of US-funded Awakening Councils, and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's call for his militia to abide by a cease fire.


title: Iraq War

text: On 31 January, Iraq held provincial elections. Provincial candidates and those close to them faced some political assassinations and attempted assassinations, and there was also some other violence related to the election.


title: Iraq War

text: Iraqi voter turnout failed to meet the original expectations which were set and was the lowest on record in Iraq, but US Ambassador Ryan Crocker characterized the turnout as "large". Of those who turned out to vote, some groups complained of disenfranchisement and fraud. After the post-election curfew was lifted, some groups made threats about what would happen if they were unhappy with the results.


title: Iraq War

text: On 27 February, United States President Barack Obama gave a speech at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in the US state of North Carolina announcing that the US combat mission in Iraq would end by 31 August 2010. A "transitional force" of up to 50,000 troops tasked with training the Iraqi Security Forces, conducting counterterrorism operations, and providing general support may remain until the end of 2011, the president added. However, the insurgency in 2011 and the rise of ISIL in 2014 caused the war to continue.


title: Iraq War

text: The day before Obama's speech, Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al‑Maliki said at a press conference that the government of Iraq had "no worries" over the impending departure of US forces and expressed confidence in the ability of the Iraqi Security Forces and police to maintain order without US military support.


title: Iraq War

text: On 9 April, the 6th anniversary of Baghdad's fall to coalition forces, tens of thousands of Iraqis thronged Baghdad to mark the anniversary and demand the immediate departure of coalition forces. The crowds of Iraqis stretched from the Sadr City slum in northeast Baghdad to the square around away, where protesters burned an effigy featuring the face of US President George W. Bush. There were also Sunni Muslims in the crowd. Police said many Sunnis, including prominent leaders such as a founding sheikh from the Sons of Iraq, took part.


title: Iraq War

text: On 30 April, the United Kingdom formally ended combat operations. Prime Minister Gordon Brown characterized the operation in Iraq as a "success story" because of UK troops' efforts. Britain handed control of Basra to the United States Armed Forces.


title: Iraq War

text: The withdrawal of US forces began at the end of June, with 38 bases to be handed over to Iraqi forces. On 29 June 2009, US forces withdrew from Baghdad. On 30 November 2009, Iraqi Interior Ministry officials reported that the civilian death toll in Iraq fell to its lowest level in November since the 2003 invasion.


title: Iraq War

text: On 28 July, Australia withdrew its combat forces as the Australian military presence in Iraq ended, per an agreement with the Iraqi government.


title: Iraq War

text: On 30 June and 11 December 2009, the Iraqi ministry of oil awarded contracts to international oil companies for some of Iraq's many oil fields. The winning oil companies entered joint ventures with the Iraqi ministry of oil, and the terms of the awarded contracts included extraction of oil for a fixed fee of approximately $1.40 per barrel. The fees will only be paid once a production threshold set by the Iraqi ministry of oil is reached.


title: Iraq War

text: On 17 February 2010, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that as of 1 September, the name "Operation Iraqi Freedom" would be replaced by "Operation New Dawn".


title: Iraq War

text: On 18 April, US and Iraqi forces killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in a joint American and Iraqi operation near Tikrit, Iraq. The coalition forces believed al-Masri to be wearing a suicide vest and proceeded cautiously. After the lengthy exchange of fire and bombing of the house, the Iraqi troops stormed inside and found two women still alive, one of whom was al-Masri's wife, and four dead men, identified as al-Masri, Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi, an assistant to al-Masri, and al-Baghdadi's son. A suicide vest was indeed found on al-Masri's corpse, as the Iraqi Army subsequently stated.


title: Iraq War

text: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the killings of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri at a news conference in Baghdad and showed reporters photographs of their bloody corpses. "The attack was carried out by ground forces which surrounded the house, and also through the use of missiles," Mr Maliki said. "During the operation computers were seized with e-mails and messages to the two biggest terrorists, Osama bin Laden and [his deputy] Ayman al-Zawahiri", Maliki added. US forces commander Gen. Raymond Odierno praised the operation. "The death of these terrorists is potentially the most significant blow to al‑Qaeda in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency", he said. "There is still work to do but this is a significant step forward in ridding Iraq of terrorists."


title: Iraq War

text: US Vice President Joe Biden stated that the deaths of the top two al‑Qaeda figures in Iraq are "potentially devastating" blows to the terror network there and proof that Iraqi security forces are gaining ground.


title: Iraq War

text: On 20 June, Iraq's Central Bank was bombed in an attack that left 15 people dead and brought much of downtown Baghdad to a standstill. The attack was claimed to have been carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq. This attack was followed by another attack on Iraq's Bank of Trade building that killed 26 and wounded 52 people.


title: Iraq War

text: In late August 2010, insurgents conducted a major attack with at least 12 car bombs simultaneously detonating from Mosul to Basra and killing at least 51. These attacks coincided with the US plans for a withdrawal of combat troops.


title: Iraq War

text: From the end of August 2010, the United States attempted to dramatically cut its combat role in Iraq, with the withdrawal of all US ground forces designated for active combat operations. The last US combat brigades departed Iraq in the early morning of 19 August. Convoys of US troops had been moving out of Iraq to Kuwait for several days, and NBC News broadcast live from Iraq as the last convoy crossed the border. While all combat brigades left the country, an additional 50,000 personnel (including Advise and Assist Brigades) remained in the country to provide support for the Iraqi military. These troops were required to leave Iraq by 31 December 2011 under an agreement between the US and Iraqi governments.


title: Iraq War

text: The desire to step back from an active counter-insurgency role did not however mean that the Advise and Assist Brigades and other remaining US forces would not be caught up in combat. A standards memo from the Associated Press reiterated "combat in Iraq is not over, and we should not uncritically repeat suggestions that it is, even if they come from senior officials".


title: Iraq War

text: State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley stated "... we are not ending our work in Iraq, We have a long-term commitment to Iraq." On 31 August, from the Oval Office, Barack Obama announced his intent to end the combat mission in Iraq. In his address, he covered the role of the United States' soft power, the effect the war had on the United States economy, and the legacy of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.


title: Iraq War

text: On the same day in Iraq, at a ceremony at one of Saddam Hussein's former residences at Al Faw Palace in Baghdad, a number of US dignitaries spoke in a ceremony for television cameras, avoiding overtones of the triumphalism present in US announcements made earlier in the war. Vice President Joe Biden expressed concerns regarding the ongoing lack of progress in forming a new Iraqi government, saying of the Iraqi people that "they expect a government that reflects the results of the votes they cast". Gen. Ray Odierno stated that the new era "in no way signals the end of our commitment to the people of Iraq". Speaking in Ramadi earlier in the day, Gates said that US forces "have accomplished something really quite extraordinary here, [but] how it all weighs in the balance over time I think remains to be seen". When asked by reporters if the seven-year war was worth doing, Gates commented that "It really requires a historian's perspective in terms of what happens here in the long run". He noted the Iraq War "will always be clouded by how it began" regarding Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction, which were never confirmed to have existed. Gates continued, "This is one of the reasons that this war remains so controversial at home". On the same day Gen. Ray Odierno was replaced by Lloyd Austin as Commander of US forces in Iraq.


title: Iraq War

text: On 7 September, two US troops were killed and nine wounded in an incident at an Iraqi military base. The incident is under investigation by Iraqi and US forces, but it is believed that an Iraqi soldier opened fire on US forces.


title: Iraq War

text: On 8 September, the US Army announced the arrival in Iraq of the first specifically-designated Advise and Assist Brigade, the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment. It was announced that the unit would assume responsibilities in five southern governorates. From 10 to 13 September, Second Advise and Assist Brigade, 25th Infantry Division fought Iraqi insurgents near Diyala.


title: Iraq War

text: According to reports from Iraq, hundreds of members of the Sunni Awakening Councils may have switched allegiance back to the Iraqi insurgency or al-Qaeda.


title: Iraq War

text: In October, WikiLeaks disclosed 391,832 classified US military documents on the Iraq War. Approximately, 58 people were killed with another 40 wounded in an attack on the Sayidat al‑Nejat church, a Chaldean Catholic church in Baghdad. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq organization.


title: Iraq War

text: Coordinated attacks in primarily Shia areas struck throughout Baghdad on 2 November, killing approximately 113 and wounding 250 with around 17 bombs.


title: Iraq War

text: As US forces departed the country, the Iraq Defense Ministry solidified plans to purchase advanced military equipment from the United States. Plans in 2010 called for $13 billion of purchases, to include 140 M1 Abrams main battle tanks. In addition to the $13 billion purchase, the Iraqis also requested 18 F-16 Fighting Falcons as part of a $4.2 billion program that also included aircraft training and maintenance, AIM‑9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, laser-guided bombs and reconnaissance equipment. All Abrams tanks were delivered by the end of 2011, but the first F-16s did not arrive in Iraq until 2015, due to concerns that the Islamic State might overrun Balad Air Base.


title: Iraq War

text: The Iraqi Navy also purchased 12 US‑built Swift-class patrol boats, at a cost of $20 million each. Delivery was completed in 2013. The vessels are used to protect the oil terminals at Basra and Khor al-Amiya. Two US‑built offshore support vessels, each costing $70 million, were delivered in 2011.


title: Iraq War

text: In a move to legitimize the existing Iraqi government, the United Nations lifted the Saddam Hussein-era UN restrictions on Iraq. These included allowing Iraq to have a civilian nuclear program, permitting the participation of Iraq in international nuclear and chemical weapons treaties, as well as returning control of Iraq's oil and gas revenue to the government and ending the Oil-for-Food Programme.


title: Iraq War

text: Muqtada al-Sadr returned to Iraq in the holy city of Najaf to lead the Sadrist movement after being in exile since 2007.


title: Iraq War

text: On 15 January 2011, three US troops were killed in Iraq. One of the troops was killed on a military operation in central Iraq, while the other two troops were deliberately shot by one or two Iraqi soldiers during a training exercise.


title: Iraq War

text: On 6 June, five US troops were killed in an apparent rocket attack on JSS Loyalty. A sixth soldier, who was wounded in the attack, died 10 days later of his wounds.


title: Iraq War

text: On 26 June 2011, a US soldier was killed. Sergeant Brent McBride was sentenced to four years, two months for his involvement in the death.


title: Iraq War

text: On 29 June, three US troops were killed in a rocket attack on a US base located near the border with Iran. It was speculated that the militant group responsible for the attack was the same one which attacked JSS Loyalty just over three weeks before. With the three deaths, June 2011, became the bloodiest month in Iraq for the US military since June 2009, with 15 US soldiers killed, only one of them outside combat.


title: Iraq War

text: On 7 July, two US troops were killed and one seriously injured in an IED attack at Victory Base Complex outside Baghdad. They were members of the 145th Brigade Support Battalion, 116th Cavalry Heavy Brigade Combat Team, an Idaho Army National Guard unit base in Post Falls, Idaho. Spc. Nathan R. Beyers, 24, and Spc. Nicholas W. Newby, 20, were killed in the attack, Staff Sgt. Jazon Rzepa, 30, was seriously injured.


title: Iraq War

text: In September, Iraq signed a contract to buy 18 Lockheed Martin F-16 warplanes, becoming the 26th nation to operate the F-16. Because of windfall profits from oil, the Iraqi government is planning to double this originally planned 18, to 36 F-16s. Iraq is relying on the US military for air support as it rebuilds its forces and battles a stubborn Islamist insurgency.


title: Iraq War

text: With the collapse of the discussions about extending the stay of any US troops beyond 2011, where they would not be granted any immunity from the Iraqi government, on 21 October 2011, President Obama announced at a White House press conference that all remaining US troops and trainers would leave Iraq by the end of the year as previously scheduled, bringing the US mission in Iraq to an end. The last American soldier to die in Iraq before the withdrawal, SPC. David Hickman, was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on 14 November.


title: Iraq War

text: In November 2011, the US Senate voted down a resolution to formally end the war by bringing its authorization by Congress to an end.


title: Iraq War

text: On 15 December, an American military ceremony was held in Baghdad putting a formal end to the US mission in Iraq.


title: Iraq War

text: The last US troops withdrew from Iraq on 18 December 2011, although the US embassy and consulates continue to maintain a staff of more than 20,000 including US Marine Embassy Guards and between 4,000 and 5,000 private military contractors. The next day, Iraqi officials issued an arrest warrant for the Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi. He has been accused of involvement in assassinations and fled to the Kurdish part of Iraq.


title: Iraq War

text: The invasion and occupation led to sectarian violence, which caused widespread displacement among Iraqi civilians. The Iraqi Red Crescent organization estimated the total internal displacement was around 2.3 million in 2008, with as many as 2 million Iraqis having left the country. Poverty led many Iraqi women to turn to prostitution to support themselves and their families, attracting sex tourists from the region. The invasion led to a constitution, which supported democracy as long as laws did not violate traditional Islamic principles, and the first parliamentary elections were held in 2005. In addition, the invasion preserved the autonomy of the Kurdish region, and stability brought new economic prosperity to Iraq. Because the Kurdish region is historically the most democratic area of Iraq, many Iraqi refugees from other territories fled here.


title: Iraq War

text: Sectarian violence continued in the first half of 2013. At least 56 people died in April when a Sunni protest in Hawija was interrupted by a government-supported helicopter raid and a series of violent incidents occurred in May. On 20 May 2013, at least 95 people died in a wave of car bomb attacks that was preceded by a car bombing on 15 May that led to 33 deaths; also, on 18 May 76 people were killed in the Sunni areas of Baghdad. Some experts have stated that Iraq could return to the brutal sectarian conflict of 2006.


title: Iraq War

text: On 22 July 2013, at least five hundred convicts, most of whom were senior members of al-Qaida who had received death sentences, were freed from Abu Ghraib jail in an insurgent attack, which began with a suicide bomb attack on the prison gates. James F. Jeffrey, the United States ambassador in Baghdad when the last American troops exited, said the assault and resulting escape "will provide seasoned leadership and a morale boost to Al Qaeda and its allies in both Iraq and Syria ... it is likely to have an electrifying impact on the Sunni population in Iraq, which has been sitting on the fence."


title: Iraq War

text: By mid-2014 Iraq was in chaos with a new government yet to be formed following national elections, and the insurgency reaching new heights. In early June 2014 the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took over the cities of Mosul and Tikrit and said it was ready to march on Baghdad, while Iraqi Kurdish forces took control of key military installations in the major oil city of Kirkuk. The al-Qaida breakaway group formally declared the creation of an Islamic state on 29 June 2014, in the territory under its control.


title: Iraq War

text: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki unsuccessfully asked his parliament to declare a state of emergency that would give him increased powers. On 14 August 2014, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki succumbed to pressure at home and abroad to step down. This paved the way for Haidar al-Abadi to take over on 19 August 2014.


title: Iraq War

text: In September 2014, President Obama acknowledged that the US underestimated the rise of the Islamic State and overestimated the Iraqi military's ability to fight ISIL. Obama announced the return of US forces, in the form of aerial support, in an effort to halt the advance of ISIL forces, render humanitarian aid to stranded refugees and stabilize the political situation.


title: Iraq War

text: A civil war between ISIL and the central government continued for the next three years. Following the election of Donald Trump, the United States intensified its campaign against the Islamic State by January 2017. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said a tactical shift to surrounding Islamic State strongholds in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, was devised not only to "annihilate" ISIL fighters hunkered down there, but also to prevent them from returning to their home nations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. In 2017, US-backed Kurdish forces captured Raqqa, which had served as the ISIL capital. The Iraqi government declared victory against ISIL in December 2017. By 2018, violence in Iraq was at its lowest level in ten years. This was greatly a result of the defeat of ISIL forces and the subsequent calming-down of the insurgency.


title: Iraq War

text: In January 2020, the Iraqi parliament voted for all foreign troops to leave the country. This would end its standing agreement with the United States to station 5,200 soldiers in Iraq. Then President Trump objected to withdrawing troops and threatened Iraq with sanctions over this decision.


title: Iraq War

text: For coalition death totals see the infobox at the top right. See also Casualties of the Iraq War, which has casualty numbers for coalition nations, contractors, non-Iraqi civilians, journalists, media helpers, aid workers, and the wounded. Casualty figures, especially Iraqi ones, are highly disputed.


title: Iraq War

text: There have been several attempts by the media, coalition governments and others to estimate the Iraqi casualties. The table below summarizes some of these estimates and methods.


title: Iraq War

text: The Bush administration's rationale for the Iraq War has faced heavy criticism from an array of popular and official sources both inside and outside the United States, with many US citizens finding many parallels with the Vietnam War. For example, a former CIA officer described the Office of Special Plans as a group of ideologues who were dangerous to US national security and a threat to world peace, and stated that the group lied and manipulated intelligence to further its agenda of removing Saddam. The Center for Public Integrity alleges that the Bush administration made a total of 935 false statements between 2001 and 2003 about Iraq's alleged threat to the United States.


title: Iraq War

text: Both proponents and opponents of the invasion have also criticized the prosecution of the war effort along with a number of other lines. Most significantly, critics have assailed the United States and its allies for not devoting enough troops to the mission, not adequately planning for post-invasion Iraq, and for permitting and perpetrating human rights abuses. As the war has progressed, critics have also railed against the high human and financial costs. In 2016, the United Kingdom published the Iraq Inquiry, a public inquiry which was broadly critical of the actions of the British government and military in making the case for the war, in tactics and in planning for the aftermath of the war.


title: Iraq War

text: In March 2013, the total cost of the Iraq War to date was estimated at $1.7 trillion by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Some argue that the total cost of the war to the US economy will range from $3 trillion to , including interest rates, by 2053, as described in the Watson Institute's report. The upper ranges of these estimates include long-term veterans costs and economic impacts. For example, Harvard's public finance expert Linda J. Bilmes has estimated that the long-term cost of providing disability compensation and medical care to US troops injured in the Iraq conflict will reach nearly $1 trillion over the next 40 years, and that the war in Iraq diverted resources from the war in Afghanistan, led to rising oil prices, increased the federal debt, and contributed to a global financial crisis.


title: Iraq War

text: A CNN report noted that the United States–led interim government, the Coalition Provisional Authority lasting until 2004 in Iraq had lost $8.8 billion in the Development Fund for Iraq. In June 2011, it was reported by CBS News that $6 billion in neatly packaged blocks of $100 bills was air-lifted into Iraq by the George W. Bush administration, which flew it into Baghdad aboard C‑130 military cargo planes. In total, the "Times" says $12 billion in cash was flown into Iraq in 21 separate flights by May 2004, all of which has disappeared. An inspector general's report mentioned that "'Severe inefficiencies and poor management' by the Coalition Provisional Authority would leave no guarantee that the money was properly used", said Stuart W. Bowen, Jr., director of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. "The CPA did not establish or implement sufficient managerial, financial, and contractual controls to ensure that funds were used in a transparent manner." Bowen told the Times the missing money may represent "the largest theft of funds in national history."


title: Iraq War

text: By 2013, some human rights groups in both Iraq and the U.S. had begun campaigning for reparations from the US for the devastation and health effects suffered by Iraqis during the war.


title: Iraq War

text: According to a 2007 Oxfam report, the child malnutrition rate had risen to 28%, and the rate of people without access to clean drinking water had risen to 70%. In 2007, Nasser Muhssin, a researcher on family and children's affairs affiliated to the University of Baghdad claimed that 60–70% of Iraqi children suffered from psychological problems. A 2007 cholera outbreak in northern Iraq was thought to be the result of poor water quality. As many as half of Iraqi doctors left the country between 2003 and 2006.


title: Iraq War

text: By the end of 2015, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 4.4 million Iraqis had been internally displaced. The population of Iraqi Christians dropped dramatically during the war, from 1.5 million in 2003 to 500,000 in 2015, and perhaps only 275,000 in 2016.


title: Iraq War

text: The Foreign Policy Association reported that: "Perhaps the most perplexing component of the Iraq refugee crisis ... has been the inability for the United States to absorb more Iraqis following the 2003 invasion of the country. To date, the United States has granted around 84,000 Iraqis refugee status, of the more than two million global Iraqi refugees. By contrast, the United States granted asylum to more than 100,000 South Vietnamese refugees during the Vietnam War."


title: Iraq War

text: The war has led to oil spills, which increased carbon emissions and contaminated the surrounding water resources. During the invasion period, the retreating Iraqi army damaged the oil infrastructure and destroyed more than 736 oil wells in southern Iraq, resulting in massive oil spills and the ignition of fires. In 2003, more than 50 billion tonnes of carbon emissions were produced from burning oil fields and released into the atmosphere. Also, over 130 million gallons of oil leaked into surrounding water resources, such as Sawa Lake. Between 2003 and 2010, more than 5,000 birds from three species died around Sawa Lake.


title: Iraq War

text: The U.S.-led coalition used depleted uranium (DU) muntions during the war to pierce tank armour. of DU muntions were fired, which caused ammunition fragments containing radioactive material to spread across the country. According to a United Nations Environment Programme report, radioactive material contaminated air and soil; with the radioactive concentration found in Iraqi soil at 709.52 Bq in 2003 compared to 143.22 Bq in 2002. The report states that high levels of radiation prevented plants, especially crop seeds, from sprouting; with about 22% (9.5 million ha) of the farmland in Iraq unable to grow barley.


title: Iraq War

text: In addition, radiation contamination may have had harmful public health outcomes through poisoning and increased incidence of various cancers and birth defects. Several studies have identified increased occurrence of deformities, cancers, and other serious health problems in areas where DU shells were used. Some Iraqi doctors attributed these malformations to possible long-term effects of depleted uranium. Studies disagree on whether DU ammunition has any measurable detrimental health effects. According to research from the UK Atomic Energy Authority in 2005, the cancer rate had increased by 35% since 2003. As of 2013, 140,000 Iraqis were suffering from cancer, with between 7,000 to 8,000 new cases yearly. According to a 2012 journal article by Al-Hadithi et al., existing studies and research evidence does not show a "clear increase in birth defects" or a "clear indication of a possible environmental exposure including depleted uranium". The article further states that "there is actually no substantial evidence that genetic defects can arise from parental exposure to DU in any circumstances."


title: Iraq War

text: The war has also led to damage to ecosystems though pollution and physical destruction. Approximately 25,000 tons of bombs were dropped by the U.S. military during the war. More than 250 chemical and armament factories were destroyed, which caused over 50,000 cubic meters of hazardous chemicals, such as fertilizer, and raw sewage to leak into water, leading to surrounding freshwater ecosystem becoming polluted and species' habitat being impacted. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, 33 Iraqi wetlands, especially the Mesopotamian Marshland, have been contaminated by chemicals, which has caused 60 types of mammal species to lose their habitats, and more than 45 types of plants to become extinct.


title: Iraq War

text: The post-invasion Iraqi government used torture against detainees, including children. Some techniques of torture used included beatings, electric shocks, prolonged hanging by the wrists, food and water deprivation, and blindfolding for multiple days. Iraqi police from the Interior Ministry were accused of forming Death Squads and committing numerous massacres of Sunni Arabs. Many of these human rights abuses were carried out by Iraqi government-sponsored Shi'ite militias.


title: Iraq War

text: In a March 2003 Gallup poll, the day after the invasion, 76% of Americans had approved of military action against Iraq. In a March 2003 YouGov poll, 54% of Britons supported the military action against Iraq. A remarkable aspect was the support for invasion expressed by many left-wing intellectuals such as Christopher Hitchens, Paul Berman, Michael Walzer and Jean Bethke Elshtain.


title: Iraq War

text: According to a January 2007 BBC World Service poll of more than 26,000 people in 25 countries, 73% of the global population disapproved of US handling of the Iraq War. A September 2007 poll conducted by the BBC found that two-thirds of the world's population believed the US should withdraw its forces from Iraq.


title: Iraq War

text: In 2006 it was found that majorities in the UK and Canada believed that the war in Iraq was "unjustified" and – in the UK – were critical of their government's support of US policies in Iraq.


title: Iraq War

text: According to polls conducted by the Arab American Institute, four years after the invasion of Iraq, 83% of Egyptians had a negative view of the US role in Iraq; 68% of Saudi Arabians had a negative view; 96% of the Jordanian population had a negative view; 70% of the population of the United Arab Emirates and 76% of the Lebanese population also described their view as negative. The Pew Global Attitudes Project reports that in 2006 majorities in the Netherlands, Germany, Jordan, France, Lebanon, Russia, China, Canada, Poland, Pakistan, Spain, Indonesia, Turkey, and Morocco believed the world was safer before the Iraq War and the toppling of Saddam, while pluralities in the United States and India believe the world is safer without Saddam Hussein.


title: Iraq War

text: Directly after the invasion, polling suggested that a slight majority supported the US invasion. Polls conducted between 2005 and 2007 showed 31–37% of Iraqis wanted US and other Coalition forces to withdraw once security was restored and that 26–35% wanted immediate withdrawal instead. Despite a majority having previously been opposed to the US presence, 60% of Iraqis opposed American troops leaving directly prior to withdrawal, with 51% saying withdrawal would have a negative effect. In 2006, a poll conducted on the Iraqi public revealed that 52% of the ones polled said Iraq was going in the right direction and 61% claimed it was worth ousting Saddam Hussein. In a March 2007 BBC poll, 82% of Iraqis expressed a lack of confidence in coalition forces based in Iraq.


title: Iraq War

text: Though explicitly stating that Iraq had "nothing" to do with 9/11, erstwhile President George W. Bush consistently referred to the Iraq War as "the central front in the War on Terror", and argued that if the United States pulled out of Iraq, "terrorists will follow us here". While other proponents of the war regularly echoed this assertion, as the conflict dragged on, members of the US Congress, the US public, and even US troops questioned the connection between Iraq and the fight against anti-US terrorism. In particular, a consensus developed among intelligence experts that the Iraq War actually increased terrorism. Counterterrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna frequently referred to the invasion of Iraq as a "fatal mistake".


title: Iraq War

text: London's International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded in 2004 that the occupation of Iraq had become "a potent global recruitment pretext" for Mujahideen and that the invasion "galvanised" al-Qaeda and "perversely inspired insurgent violence" there. The US National Intelligence Council concluded in a January 2005 report that the war in Iraq had become a breeding ground for a new generation of terrorists; David Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats, indicated that the report concluded that the war in Iraq provided terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills ... There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will, therefore, disperse to various other countries." The council's chairman Robert Hutchings said, "At the moment, Iraq is a magnet for international terrorist activity." And the 2006 National Intelligence Estimate, which outlined the considered judgment of all 16 US intelligence agencies, held that "The Iraq conflict has become the 'cause célèbre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement."


title: Iraq War

text: According to two unnamed US officials, the Pentagon is examining the possibility that the Karbala provincial headquarters raid, in which insurgents managed to infiltrate an American base, kill five US soldiers, wound three, and destroy three humvees before fleeing, was supported by Iranians. In a speech on , Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stated that Iran was supporting attacks against Coalition forces in Iraq and some Iraqis suspect that the raid may have been perpetrated by the Quds Force in retaliation for the detention of five Iranian officials by US forces in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on .


title: Iraq War

text: A 1,300-page US Army Iraq War study, released in January 2019, concluded that “At the time of this project’s completion in 2018, an emboldened and expansionist Iran appears to be the only victor" and that the outcome of the war triggered a "deep skepticism about foreign interventions” among America's public opinion.


title: Theranos

text: Theranos Inc. () was an American privately held corporation that was touted as a breakthrough health technology company. Founded in 2003 by then 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos raised more than US$700 million from venture capitalists and private investors, resulting in a $10 billion valuation at its peak in 2013 and 2014. The company claimed that it had devised blood tests that required very small amounts of blood and that could be performed rapidly and accurately, all using compact automated devices which the company had developed. These claims were later proven to be false.


title: Theranos

text: A turning point came in 2015, when medical research professor John Ioannidis, and later Eleftherios Diamandis, along with investigative journalist John Carreyrou of "The Wall Street Journal", questioned the validity of Theranos's technology. The company faced a string of legal and commercial challenges from medical authorities, investors, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), state attorneys general, former business partners, patients and others. By June 2016, it was estimated that Holmes's personal net worth had dropped from $4.5 billion to virtually nothing. After several years of struggle, lawsuits, and sanctions from CMS, what remained of the company was dissolved on September 4, 2018.


title: Theranos

text: Theranos, Holmes and former company president Sunny Balwani were charged with fraud by the SEC in 2018. Holmes and Balwani were also charged with wire fraud and conspiracy, with Holmes being found guilty on four counts in January 2022 and sentenced that November to 11 years and 3 months in prison. Balwani was convicted on all 12 counts brought against him in July 2022, and in December 2022 was sentenced to 12 years and 11 months in prison and 3 years of probation.


title: Theranos

text: While at Stanford University, Elizabeth Holmes had an idea to develop a wearable patch that could adjust the dosage of drug delivery and notify doctors of variables in patients' blood. She started developing lab-on-a-chip technology for blood tests, with the idea to start a company that would make blood tests cheaper, more convenient and accessible to consumers. Holmes dropped out of Stanford in 2003 and used the education trust from her parents to found the company that would later be called Theranos, derived from a combination of the words "therapy" and "diagnosis". The company's original name was "Real-Time Cures", which Holmes changed after deciding that too many people were skeptical of the word "cure".


title: Theranos

text: In 2012 Safeway invested $350 million into retrofitting 800 locations with clinics that would offer in-store blood tests. After many missed deadlines and questionable results from a trial clinic at Safeway's corporate offices, the deal was terminated in 2015. In 2013, Theranos partnered with Walgreens to offer in-store blood tests at more than 40 locations. Although Theranos blood tests were reportedly used on drug trial patients for GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, both companies stated that there were no active projects with Theranos in October 2015. In June 2016, Walgreens terminated its partnership with Theranos. In November 2016 it filed suit against Theranos in federal court in Delaware for breach of contract. In June 2017, Theranos reported to investors that the suit, which originally sought $140 million in damages, was settled for less than $30 million.


title: Theranos

text: In March 2015 the Cleveland Clinic announced a partnership with Theranos to test its technology and decrease the cost of lab tests. In July 2015, Theranos became the lab-work provider for Pennsylvania insurers AmeriHealth Caritas and Capital BlueCross.


title: Theranos

text: In July 2015 the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the company's fingerstick blood testing device for the herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) outside a clinical laboratory setting. Theranos was named the 2015 Bioscience Company of the Year by the Arizona BioIndustry Association (AzBio).


title: Theranos

text: In February 2015 Stanford professor John Ioannidis wrote in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" that no peer-reviewed research from Theranos had been published in medical research literature. In May 2015, University of Toronto Professor Eleftherios Diamandis analyzed Theranos technology and concluded that "most of the company's claims are exaggerated." Attempting to boost the company's credibility, Holmes invited then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to tour their facility. Biden praised what he saw, but to conceal the lab's true operating conditions, Holmes and Balwani had created a fake lab for the Vice President's tour.


title: Theranos

text: In October 2015 John Carreyrou of "The Wall Street Journal" reported that Theranos was using traditional blood testing machines instead of the company's Edison devices to run its tests, and that the company's Edison machines might provide inaccurate results. Tyler Shultz, a Theranos employee from 2013 to 2014 and the grandson of then-Theranos director, former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz, was a key source for the "WSJ" story. Shultz had attempted to take his concerns to company management. When that failed, he had spoken to Carreyrou and also, under an alias, reported the company to the New York State Department of Health.


title: Theranos

text: Theranos claimed that the allegations were "factually and scientifically erroneous." Walgreens suspended plans to expand blood-testing centers in their stores following the report. At that time, the Cleveland Clinic announced that it would work to verify Theranos technology. Theranos fought back against the "Journal" investigation, sending lawyers after sources in the story, including Shultz, in an effort to stop them from providing information to the press. Former employees of reputation management firm Status Labs said that Theranos had hired the firm to discreetly erase mentions of the "WSJ"s reporting from its Wikipedia article, despite the activity being a violation of the website's terms of use.


title: Theranos

text: Following the "WSJ" story, the history of FDA interactions with Theranos was scrutinized. The FDA had received a formal inquiry to look at Theranos blood test devices by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2012, before the devices were commercially available and did not require FDA approval. FDA inspection reports from 2014 and 2015 stated that its containers for blood collection were "not validated under actual or simulated use conditions" and "were not reviewed and not approved by designated individual(s) prior to issuance". In 2015, an FDA inspection resulted in multiple observed violations of FDA Title 21 Regulations. It was eventually revealed that the FDA had classified Theranos's device, called a nanotainer, as a Class II medical device, meaning that Theranos would need to use special labels, meet certain performance standards and perform post-market surveillance of the device. Theranos asserted that the nanotainer was a Class I medical device and therefore not subject to any regulatory requirements. After the 2015 inspection, Theranos announced that it would voluntarily suspend its tests apart from the FDA-approved herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) test.


title: Theranos

text: The Arizona Department of Health Services reported issues with the company's Scottsdale lab meeting regulations in September 2015. The reports were revealed in the "Arizona Republic" in November 2015.


title: Theranos

text: In January 2016 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to Theranos based on an inspection of its Newark, California lab in 2015, reporting that the facility caused "immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety" due to a test to determine the correct dose of the blood-thinning drug warfarin. Walgreens subsequently announced a suspension of Theranos blood tests from the Newark lab and immediately paused wellness services in Palo Alto. Theranos also agreed to stop tests at Capital BlueCross's Enola, Pennsylvania retail store.


title: Theranos

text: In March 2016 CMS regulators announced plans to enact sanctions that included suspending Holmes and Balwani from owning or operating any certified clinical laboratory for two years and that they would revoke the facility's certification as a clinical laboratory.


title: Theranos

text: By April 2016 Theranos came under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors and the SEC for allegedly misleading investors and government officials about its technology. The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce requested information on what Theranos was doing to correct its testing inaccuracies and adherence to federal guidelines in June 2016.


title: Theranos

text: In May 2016 Theranos announced that it had voided two years of results from its Edison device. The company announced that about 1% of test results had been voided or corrected from its proprietary machines in June 2016. Within two weeks, Walgreens formally terminated its partnership with Theranos and would close all remaining Theranos wellness centers.


title: Theranos

text: In July 2016 Theranos announced that the CMS had revoked its Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certificate and issued sanctions prohibiting its owners and operators from owning or operating a clinical laboratory for two years, suspension of approval to receive Medicare and Medicaid payments, and a civil monetary penalty. The company discontinued testing at its Newark location while attempting to resolve the issues. Theranos announced plans to appeal the decision by regulators to revoke its license to operate a lab in California and other sanctions.


title: Theranos

text: In August 2016 the company withdrew its request for emergency clearance of a Zika virus blood test after a lack of essential safeguards during the testing process was found by federal inspectors.


title: Theranos

text: Theranos announced that it would close its laboratory operations and wellness centers and lay off about 40% of its work force to work on miniature medical testing machines in October 2016. In January 2017, Theranos announced that it had laid off a further 41% of its workforce, or approximately 155 people, and closed the last remaining blood-testing facility after the lab failed a second major U.S. regulatory inspection. Also that month, the company faced lawsuits from several different entities including Walgreens and Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich.


title: Theranos

text: In April 2017 lawyers for Partner Investments LP and two other funds, with combined stakes totaling more than $96 million in Theranos preferred shares, charged that Theranos had threatened to seek bankruptcy protection if the investors did not agree to accept additional stock equity in lieu of litigation. Theranos officials said the funds had mischaracterized the exchange offer, which was discussed before the suit was filed. The suit also alleged that Theranos had misled company directors about its practices concerning laboratory testing and that it had secretly bought lab equipment to run fake demonstrations. On May 1, 2017, Theranos announced that it had reached an undisclosed settlement with Partner Fund Management LP (PFM). Theranos's General Counsel, David Taylor, stated: "Theranos is pleased to have resolved both lawsuits with PFM. Although we are confident that we would have prevailed at trial, resolution of these two cases allows our tender offer to go forward and enables us to return our focus where it belongs, which is on executing our business plans and delivering value for our shareholders." In April 2017, Theranos reached a settlement with CMS agreeing to stay out of the blood-testing business for at least two years in exchange for reduced penalties, and signed a consent decree with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich over violations of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act. Alleged violations included false advertisement and inaccurate blood testing. Theranos agreed to refund $4.65 million to the state's residents for Theranos blood testing services, providing a refund to every resident who had received a test, regardless of whether the test results were voided or corrected.


title: Theranos

text: In December 2017 Fortress Investment Group, a wholly owned company of Softbank Group, loaned $100 million to Theranos for 4% of the company. Theranos had reportedly been on the verge of bankruptcy, with the loan meant to keep the company solvent into 2018. The loan was secured by Theranos's patents. On April 10, 2018, the company laid off the majority of workers in a renewed bid to avoid bankruptcy. The company's total headcount was fewer than 25 employees, after having 800 employees at its peak. Softbank's Fortress bought up Theranos patents and later, taking advantage of the new market conditions in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, set up a shell company called Labrador Diagnostics which sued one of the companies making Covid-19 tests, saying that its test violated those Theranos patents. Theranos was still being issued patents into 2019 due to the lengthy patent application process.


title: Theranos

text: In March 2018 the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges against Theranos, its CEO Elizabeth Holmes and former president Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, claiming they had engaged in an "elaborate, years-long fraud" wherein they "deceived investors into believing that its key product – a portable blood analyzer – could conduct comprehensive blood tests from finger drops of blood". Holmes reached a settlement with the SEC which required her to pay $500,000, forfeit 19 million shares of company stock, and be barred from having a leadership position in any public company for ten years. Balwani did not settle with the SEC.


title: Theranos

text: On June 15, 2018, Holmes and Balwani were indicted on multiple counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to the indictment, investors, doctors and patients were defrauded. It is alleged the defendants were aware of the unreliability and inaccuracy of their products, but concealed that information. If convicted, they each face a maximum fine of $250,000 and 20 years in prison. The case, "United States v. Elizabeth A. Holmes, et al.", has been assigned to Lucy H. Koh, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The jury selection for the trial was to begin on July 28, 2020, and the trial was to have commenced in August 2020; however, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a proposed October date, before the trial for Holmes was rescheduled to begin on August 31, 2021, with Balwani's trial pushed back further to 2022.


title: Theranos

text: In February 2021 federal prosecutors accused Holmes and other executives of destroying evidence in Theranos's final days in business. The specific evidence in question is the history of internal testing, including accuracy and failure rates of Theranos's blood-testing systems.


title: Theranos

text: On January 3, 2022, Holmes was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was sentenced in November 2022 to 11 years and 3 months in prison.


title: Theranos

text: Balwani's trial began in March 2022 and he was convicted of 12 counts of fraud in July 2022. In December he was sentenced to 12 years and 11 months in prison and 3 years of probation.


title: Theranos

text: On September 4, 2018, Theranos announced in an email to investors that it would cease operations and release its assets and remaining cash to creditors after all efforts to find a buyer were fruitless. Most of the company's remaining employees had been laid off on the previous Friday, August 31. However, Theranos general counsel and new CEO David Taylor and a few support staffers remained on payroll for a few more days. Any equity investments in the company were made worthless by the shutdown.


title: Theranos

text: Theranos claimed to have developed devices to automate and miniaturize blood tests using microscopic blood volumes. Theranos dubbed its blood collection vessel the "nanotainer" and its analysis machine the "Edison". Holmes reportedly named the device "Edison" after inventor Thomas Edison, stating, "We tried everything else and it failed, so let's call it the Edison." This was likely because of a well-known Edison quote: "I've not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."


title: Theranos

text: The blood sample was to be collected via a finger prick and then transferred to the nanotainer through Theranos's sample collection device. At just in height, the nanotainer held a couple of drops of blood.


title: Theranos

text: One of the patents for the Edison described a point of care system that could communicate with the Internet to receive instructions for which blood tests to run on the samples, before communicating these results back through the Internet. The results would then be compared to medical data available on the Internet, with the Edison running supplementary blood tests that were more targeted based on the results of the comparison. The patent was unclear on how much blood the Edison would actually require to conduct these blood tests. In one section, the patent claimed the sample needed to consist of about 10 drops of blood, but in another section, the patent claimed the Edison would need less than one drop of blood. The technology was criticized for not being peer reviewed. Theranos claimed to have data verifying the accuracy and reliability of its tests that would be published. In February 2016, Theranos announced that it would permit the Cleveland Clinic to complete a validation study of its technology. In March 2016, a study authored by 13 scientists appeared in the "Journal of Clinical Investigation", where it was stated that the company's blood test results were flagged "outside their normal range 1.6× more often than other testing services", that 68 percent of lab measurements evaluated "showed significant interservice variability", and that "lipid panel test results between Theranos and other clinical services" were "nonequivalent".


title: Theranos

text: In August 2016 the company introduced a new robotic capillary blood testing unit named "miniLab" at the 2016 annual meeting of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, but did not present any data supporting the claimed abilities of the device. The miniLab was allegedly capable of carrying out a range of tests from a small amount of blood. After Theranos failed to address concerns that it exaggerated the capabilities of the miniLab, Walgreens withdrew from their partnership. It was later revealed that Theranos had voided two years of test results showing inaccuracies with the Edison technology.


title: Theranos

text: Theranos was headquartered in Palo Alto, California. It previously had laboratories in Newark, California, and Scottsdale, Arizona.


title: Theranos

text: From its incorporation in 2003 until 2018, Holmes was the company's chief executive officer. She recruited Channing Robertson, a chemical-engineering professor at Stanford, to be a technical advisor and the company's first board member during its early years. Holmes's then-boyfriend Ramesh Balwani, a software engineer whom Holmes had met during high school, joined the company as its president and chief operating officer in 2009. In July 2011 Holmes was introduced to former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, who joined the Theranos board of directors that month. Over the next three years, Shultz helped to introduce almost all the outside directors on the "all-star board", which included William Perry (former U.S. Secretary of Defense), Henry Kissinger (former U.S. Secretary of State), Sam Nunn (former U.S. Senator), Bill Frist (former U.S. Senator, senate majority leader and heart-transplant surgeon), Gary Roughead (Admiral, USN, retired), Jim Mattis (General, USMC), Richard Kovacevich (former Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO) and Riley P. Bechtel (chairman of the board and former CEO at Bechtel Group). The board was criticized for consisting "mainly of directors with diplomatic or military backgrounds".


title: Theranos

text: In April 2016 Theranos announced its medical advisory board which included past presidents or board members of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. Members were invited to review the company's proprietary technologies and advise on the integration into clinical practice. The board included members with relevant biomedical expertise such as past president of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry Susan A. Evans; William Foege, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); David Helfet, director of the Orthopedic Trauma Service at the Hospital for Special Surgery; and professors Ann M. Gronowski, Larry J. Kricka, Jack Ladenson, Andy O. Miller and Steven Spitalnik.


title: Theranos

text: Balwani left his position as president and COO in May 2016. At that time, the company announced its new board members, Fabrizio Bonanni (former executive vice president of Amgen), Richard Kovacevich and William Foege, who would help to publicly introduce its technologies.


title: Theranos

text: In December 2016 it was announced the Theranos management team would be restructured with the departure of Riley Bechtel. In January 2017, incoming U.S. Secretary of Defense nominee James Mattis resigned from the Theranos board. In January 2017 the Theranos board of directors included:


title: Theranos

text: It was also announced in November 2016 that the celebrity-studded "board of counselors" would be scrapped in January 2017.


title: Theranos

text: Theranos raised millions of dollars in its first years. In 2004, Theranos was based in a rented basement near the Stanford campus. By December 2004, the company had raised more than $6 million from investors at a valuation of $30 million. The company had about $45 million total fundraising after Series B and Series C funding in 2006. Theranos raised an additional $45 million in 2010 at a valuation of $1 billion. The company moved to the former headquarters of Facebook in June 2012. The company had significant news coverage starting in September 2013 after profiles in the "San Francisco Business Times" and "The Wall Street Journal". By 2014, Theranos had raised more than $400 million with an estimated value of $9 billion. In 2016, "Forbes" revised the estimated net worth of the company to $800 million taking into account the $724 million of capital raised. Between 2004 and 2016, the amount of Private Equity Dry Powder available grew from $400 billion to $1.5 trillion. It was a period of plentiful capital available where investors were pressured to find investment targets to deploy capital on. In the Theranos case, insufficient due diligence and fraudulent business practices led to the losses for investors.


title: Theranos

text: In May 2017 participating shareholders provided a release of any potential claims against Theranos in exchange for shares of the company's new preferred stock. Holders of more than 99% of the shares elected to participate. Holmes contributed shares to the company and gave up equity to offset potential dilution to non-participating shareholders.


title: Theranos

text: In May 2018 John Carreyrou reported that American business and government leaders lost more than $600 million by privately investing in Theranos. Major investments had been made by the Walton family ($150 million), Rupert Murdoch ($121 million), Betsy DeVos ($100 million) and the Cox family (of Cox Media Group) ($100 million). The final liquidation of the company in September 2018 rendered these investments worthless.


title: Theranos

text: John Carreyrou, a "Wall Street Journal" journalist whose work exposed Theranos, published a book-length treatment in May 2018 titled "". A film version was reportedly scheduled for release in 2020, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Elizabeth Holmes, written by Vanessa Taylor and directed by Adam McKay. In January 2022, McKay stated that preparations for the film had resumed, and that Lawrence was working on learning Holmes' speech pattern. However, in November 2022, Lawrence announced she would no longer be involved with the project.


title: Theranos

text: In January 2019 ABC News' "Nightline" released a podcast and documentary about the Holmes/Theranos story called "The Dropout". A television drama miniseries with the same name, based on the eponymous podcast, premiered on Hulu in the US, Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ internationally on March 3, 2022.


title: Theranos

text: Also in January 2019 a documentary film entitled "" about Holmes and Theranos was released. Directed by Alex Gibney, it made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival and was released to the general public in March 2019 on HBO platforms.


title: Mac Miller

text: Malcolm James McCormick (January 19, 1992 – September 7, 2018), known professionally as Mac Miller, was an American rapper and record producer. Miller began his career in Pittsburgh's hip hop scene in 2007, at the age of fifteen. In 2010, he signed a record deal with independent label Rostrum Records and released his breakthrough mixtapes "K.I.D.S." (2010) and "Best Day Ever" (2011). Miller's debut studio album, "Blue Slide Park" (2011), became the first independently distributed debut album to top the US "Billboard" 200 since 1995.


title: Mac Miller

text: In 2013, he founded the record label imprint REMember Music. After his second studio album, "Watching Movies with the Sound Off" (2013), he left Rostrum and signed with the major label Warner Bros. Records in 2014. With them, he released four studio albums: "" (2015), "The Divine Feminine" (2016), "Swimming" (2018), and the posthumous "Circles" (2020). For "Swimming", he was posthumously nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. He also served as a record producer for various artists, including himself, under the pseudonym Larry Fisherman.


title: Mac Miller

text: Miller struggled with addiction and substance abuse, which was often referenced in his lyrics. On September 7, 2018, Miller died from an accidental drug overdose of cocaine, fentanyl, and alcohol at his home, aged 26.


title: Mac Miller

text: Malcolm James McCormick was born on January 19, 1992, in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was a son of Karen Meyers, a photographer, and Mark McCormick, an architect, and had an older brother, Miller. His mother is Jewish, and his father is Christian. While he and his brother were raised Jewish, he attended a Catholic grade school to "ensure a good education and a chance to play football and lacrosse." He later went to Winchester Thurston School, and graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School.


title: Mac Miller

text: A self-taught musician, Miller played piano, guitar, drums, and bass by the age of six. He first started rapping at the age of 14. Before that, he wanted to be a singer. In high school, he decided to focus on his rap career, later noting, "Once I hit 15, I got real serious about it and it changed my life completely ... I used to be into sports, play all the sports, go to all the high school parties. But once I found out hip-hop is almost like a job, that's all I did." He originally went by the name Easy Mac (often stylized as EZ Mac) and released the mixtape "But My Mackin' Ain't Easy" in 2007 at the age of 15. By 2009, he established himself as Mac Miller, and released two mixtapes: "The Jukebox: Prelude to Class Clown" and "The High Life". At the 2010 Pittsburgh Hip Hop Awards, Miller won 21 & Under of the Year, and Best Hip Hop Video for "Live Free".


title: Mac Miller

text: Miller signed with the independent label Rostrum Records in July 2010, in the lead-up to his mixtape "K.I.D.S." Rostrum president Benjy Grinberg met Miller while recording with Wiz Khalifa at ID Labs. Although Grinberg started giving Miller advice, he did not show interest in getting involved with his career until Miller began work on "K.I.D.S.", when he "noticed a maturation in his sound and approach to his music". By that point, Miller had started attracting interest from other record companies, but chose Rostrum due to its location in his hometown and association with Wiz Khalifa. "K.I.D.S." was released by Rostrum in August 2010. During this time, Miller broke through with a focus on social media engagement, digital sales, and persistent touring, due to a lack of radio airplay or mainstream features.


title: Mac Miller

text: "XXL" featured Miller in its annual "Freshman Class" list of 2011, alongside 10 other rappers including Kendrick Lamar and Meek Mill. Miller released his fifth mixtape, "Best Day Ever", in March 2011. Its single "Donald Trump" became his first song to chart on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at number 75, and received a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Also in March 2011, he released a six-track EP, "On and On and Beyond". Intended to target a new audience, four of its tracks were previously included on his mixtapes. The EP was his first entry into the US "Billboard" 200 albums chart at number 55.


title: Mac Miller

text: Miller's debut studio album, "Blue Slide Park", released on November 8, 2011. With 144,000 first week sales, it debuted atop the "Billboard" 200, the first independently distributed debut album to do so since Tha Dogg Pound's "Dogg Food" in 1995. Three songs from the album, "Smile Back", "Frick Park Market", and "Party on Fifth Ave." charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at number 55, 60, and 64, respectively. "Blue Slide Park" was certified gold in the United States and Canada. Despite its impressive commercial performance, "Blue Slide Park" received a generally mixed critical response.


title: Mac Miller

text: On March 23, 2012, Miller released his seventh mixtape, "Macadelic". The single "Loud" peaked at number 53 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. In mid-2012, Miller premiered two songs produced by Pharrell Williams, from a planned collaboration EP, "Pink Slime". At least ten tracks were completed by August 2012 according to Miller, but the project was not released despite a multi-year effort. Miller released an EP, "You", under the alias Larry Lovestein & The Velvet Revival on November 21, 2012. Rather than rap, the EP features Miller crooning over lounging jazz instrumentals.


title: Mac Miller

text: In early 2013, Miller founded the record label imprint REMember Music, named after a deceased friend. The label primarily focused on Pittsburgh artists, as well as releases for Miller's alter-egos. Miller starred in a six-episode reality series, "Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family", on MTV2. It followed the production of his upcoming second studio album, and premiered on February 26, 2013. On March 4, 2013, Miller released a mixtape, "Run-On Sentences Vol. 1", solely featuring instrumentals made by himself, under his production alias Larry Fisherman. Later that month, Miller featured on singer Ariana Grande's lead single "The Way" for her debut album, "Yours Truly"; the song is Miller's highest peak on the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number nine, and was certified triple platinum by the RIAA.


title: Mac Miller

text: His second studio album, "Watching Movies with the Sound Off", was released on June 18, 2013. It received generally positive reviews, with most critics praising his new psychedelic sound. The album debuted at number three on the "Billboard" 200, selling 102,000 copies in its first week. The album spawned three singles; "S.D.S.", "Watching Movies" and "Goosebumpz". The album featured guest appearances from Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler, the Creator, Action Bronson and Jay Electronica. According to Miller, the album is "very introspective and very personal so it's kind of throwing it all out there and seeing what happens."


title: Mac Miller

text: Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl presented Miller with a key to the city on September 20, 2013, and declared the date "Mac Miller Day". In collaboration with Vince Staples, Miller produced the mixtape "Stolen Youth". Under the moniker Delusional Thomas, Miller self-produced and released an eponymous mixtape, "Delusional Thomas", on October 31, 2013. On December 17, 2013, Miller released the live album "Live from Space", containing nine songs performed with the band The Internet during his Space Migration Tour and five studio-recorded tracks that were cut from his second album.


title: Mac Miller

text: Miller parted ways with Rostrum Records when his contract expired in January 2014. On May 11, 2014, Miller independently released his tenth solo mixtape, "Faces". Colin Stutz of "Billboard" wrote that the 24-track mixtape "shows [Miller] introspective, ruminating over his drug use, fame and past." "Pitchfork" Craig Jenkins called "Faces" his "most consistently honest and personal work to date". Miller later reflected on "Faces", noting his drug-addled lifestyle while recording it. The second season of Miller's reality series "Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family" aired on MTV2 in mid-2014.


title: Mac Miller

text: In October 2014, Miller signed a recording contract and distribution deal for REMember Music with the major label Warner Bros. Records. He chose Warner as it was "the most independent thinking" company he met with. Miller's major label debut, "", was released on September 18, 2015. It charted at number four on the "Billboard" 200, with 87,000 album-equivalent units. The album and the single "Weekend", featuring singer Miguel, were certified gold and platinum by the RIAA, respectively.


title: Mac Miller

text: Miller began work on his next studio album immediately after completing "GO:OD AM", wanting to explore the emotion of love. His fourth studio album, "The Divine Feminine", was released on September 16, 2016. The album features Miller singing nearly as much as rapping, and incorporates genres such as R&B, jazz and funk. It received positive reviews, with "Pitchfork" stating that the album was succinct and refined in its portrayal of love, consequently accentuating Miller's artistry. "The Divine Feminine" debuted at number two on the "Billboard" 200 and number one on "Billboard"'s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart with 48,000 units.


title: Mac Miller

text: Miller's fifth studio album, "Swimming", was released on August 3, 2018, to positive reviews from critics. "Pitchfork" described the album as consisting of "wistful soul and warm funk", through his exploration of heartbreak and his own mental health issues. "Swimming" debuted at number three on the "Billboard" 200 with 66,000 units, his fifth consecutive top five-charting album release in the United States. After his death in September 2018, the single "Self Care" rose to number 33 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, his highest peak as a lead artist at the time. "Swimming" was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.


title: Mac Miller

text: Miller's estate began approving posthumous music releases in June 2019, with the collaborative singles "Time" with Free Nationals and Kali Uchis, and "That's Life" with 88-Keys and Sia. On January 8, 2020, Miller's family announced his first posthumous album, "Circles", which was released later that month on January 17. Before his death, Miller had been working on the album as a companion album to "Swimming". Production was completed by Jon Brion, who worked with Miller on both albums. "Circles" debuted at number three on the "Billboard" 200 with 164,000 units, his biggest week for an album. Its single, "Good News", became his highest-charting song as lead artist, peaking at number 17 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Mac Miller

text: On April 29, 2020, his 2010 mixtape "K.I.D.S" was commercially re-released, followed by a deluxe version on August 13 to celebrate its tenth anniversary, including two previously unreleased songs — "Ayye" and "Back in the Day". Similarly, on October 15, 2021, his 2014 mixtape "Faces" was also re-released, more than seven years after its initial release. The re-release of his 2011 mixtape "I Love Life, Thank You" occurred on July 22, 2022. Jazz pianist Robert Glasper released "Therapy Pt. 2", a song featuring Miller's vocals, in October 2022.


title: Mac Miller

text: Early in his career, Miller's music was widely regarded as "frat rap", with lyrics focusing on partying, smoking marijuana, and lusting after fame, money, and women. After the mixed critical response of "Blue Slide Park", Miller began to employ a more expressive and experimental approach to his subsequent releases.


title: Mac Miller

text: Miller experimented with jazz in his career as well. In 2012, Miller released "You", an EP featuring lounge-jazz tracks as Larry Lovestein and the Velvet Revival. Speaking about the Larry Lovestein persona, Miller stated "I've kinda have always had this random fantasy of being a seventy-year-old Lounge Jazz singer."


title: Mac Miller

text: Toward the latter half of Miller's career, his music further implemented elements of jazz and additionally branched to funk and R&B. "Faces" incorporated jazz, while "The Divine Feminine" and "Swimming" have both been described by music publications as jazz rap. "Rolling Stone" writer Danny Schwartz also described "Swimming" as "spanning rap, funk, and trip-hop."


title: Mac Miller

text: Miller included Big L, Lauryn Hill, Beastie Boys, Outkast, and A Tribe Called Quest among his influences. He had a close relationship with fellow Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa, saying "Wiz has been a big brother to me with this music thing so far. Our relationship is beyond music. He really is just my homie, whether I will be making music or not." He has also named Eminem as an influence, stating: "I didn't really understand the genius of Em until I was like 15, 16". Miller also expressed admiration for John Lennon, he claimed that his background to his iPhone was of Lennon and that he had been a John Lennon fan for a "Long, long, long time". Miller also had multiple tattoos of Lennon, including a tattoo of Lennon's face and a tattoo of John Lennon's song "Imagine".


title: Mac Miller

text: Miller spoke openly about his struggle with substance abuse and depression. To manage stress during his Macadelic Tour in 2012, Miller began taking promethazine, and later became addicted to lean. Miller told "Complex" in January 2013: "I love lean; it's great. I was not happy and I was on lean very heavy. I was so fucked up all the time it was bad. My friends couldn't even look at me the same. I was lost." He quit taking promethazine in November 2012, before shooting his reality show "Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family". In 2014, Miller was taking drugs daily, and felt that the final track on "Faces", "Grand Finale", was "supposed to be the last song [he] made on Earth." Recounting that period to "Billboard" in August 2015, Miller was "definitely way healthier" but not "completely" sober. After stating he "hated" being sober in a February 2016 documentary, Miller had become sober for three months by October 2016, noting his better mood and maintained creativity. However, when asked about his sobriety in April 2017, Miller said he was now "living regularly".


title: Mac Miller

text: Miller was in an on-again, off-again relationship with writer Nomi Leasure, whom he met in middle school, for seven years until 2016. Many of the songs on his mixtape "Macadelic" were about their relationship. Miller dated singer Ariana Grande from August 2016 to May 2018.


title: Mac Miller

text: In February 2011, while on tour in upstate New York, Miller and his friends were arrested for possession of marijuana for which they spent the night in jail. Miller said the case was "settled".


title: Mac Miller

text: Producer Lord Finesse filed a $10 million lawsuit against Miller, Rostrum Records and DatPiff in July 2012, for the use of a sample of Finesse's song "Hip 2 Da Game" in Miller's 2010 mixtape song "Kool-Aid and Frozen Pizza". In December 2012, the lawsuit was settled out of court with its stipulations kept confidential.


title: Mac Miller

text: In March 2015, the band Aquarian Dream filed a $150,000 lawsuit against Miller for sampling their song "Yesterday (Was So Nice Today)" in the song "Therapy" that appeared on Miller's 2014 mixtape "Faces".


title: Mac Miller

text: Miller was arrested in May 2018 on charges of driving under the influence and hit and run after crashing into a utility pole and fleeing the scene with two passengers. Police obtained his address from his license plate number and Miller confessed when police arrived at his home. He was taken into custody and released on $15,000 bail. In August 2018, Miller was charged with two counts of driving under the influence for the incident. Miller died before his arraignment and the charges were dropped.


title: Mac Miller

text: On September 7, 2018, Miller was found unresponsive in his Studio City home by his personal assistant, who called 911 and performed CPR until paramedics arrived. Miller was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:51 a.m. (PDT). He had been scheduled for a video shoot on the day of his death, and was to embark on his Swimming Tour in October. In his will, Miller named his mother, father, and brother as beneficiaries. He was buried at Homewood Cemetery in his hometown of Pittsburgh, in a Jewish funeral. On November 5, 2018, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office determined that Miller died from an accidental drug overdose due to a "mixed drug toxicity" of fentanyl, cocaine, and alcohol.


title: Mac Miller

text: Thousands of fans held a vigil for Miller on September 11, 2018, at Pittsburgh's Blue Slide Park, the inspiration behind his debut album title; the site continues to be a place of remembrance. A tribute concert, Mac Miller: A Celebration of Life, took place on October 31, 2018, in Los Angeles. Many of his friends and collaborators performed or provided messages at the concert; proceeds raised benefited the newly established Mac Miller Circles Fund, which aims to support youth arts and community-building programs in his memory. The charity had raised over $700,000 by January 2019. In May 2019, the renamed Mac Miller Fund issued its first grants, including $50,000 to MusiCares, which was used to launch their Mac Miller Legacy Fund to help young musicians with substance abuse issues.


title: Mac Miller

text: Three men were arrested in September 2019 during an investigation into Miller's death. Cameron James Pettit allegedly sold Miller counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl two days before his death, which were run to Pettit by Ryan Reavis and supplied by Stephen Walter. Miller had asked Pettit for Percocet, a prescribed painkiller containing oxycodone, in addition to cocaine and Xanax. Investigators believe Miller snorted the laced pills before his death. The three men were indicted on charges of conspiracy and distribution of drugs resulting in death.


title: Mac Miller

text: On April 18, 2022, Reavis was sentenced to ten years in prison for his role in distributing the pills. On May 17, 2022, Walter was sentenced to years in prison for his role.


title: Jordan Belfort

text: Jordan Ross Belfort (; born July 9, 1962) is an American entrepreneur, speaker, author, former stockbroker, and financial criminal. In 1999, he pleaded guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock-market manipulation and running a boiler room as part of a penny-stock scam. Belfort spent 22 months in prison as part of an agreement under which he gave testimony against numerous partners and subordinates in his fraud scheme. He published the memoir "The Wolf of Wall Street" in 2007, which was adapted into a Martin Scorsese film of the same name released in 2013, in which he was played by Leonardo DiCaprio.


title: Jordan Belfort

text: Belfort was born in 1962 in the Bronx borough of New York City to Jewish parents. His father Max and his mother Leah were both accountants. He was raised in Bayside, Queens. Between completing high school and starting college, Belfort and his close childhood friend Elliot Loewenstern earned $20,000 selling Italian ice from styrofoam coolers to people at a local beach. Belfort went on to graduate from American University with a degree in biology. Belfort planned on using the money earned with Loewenstern to pay for dental school, and he enrolled at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. He left after the dean of the school said to him on his first day: "The golden age of dentistry is over. If you're here simply because you're looking to make a lot of money, you're in the wrong place."


title: Jordan Belfort

text: Belfort became a door-to-door meat and seafood salesman on Long Island, New York. He claims in interviews and his memoirs that the business was an initial success; he grew his meat-selling business to employ several workers and sold of beef and fish a week. The business ultimately failed, as he filed for bankruptcy at 25. According to his memoirs and interviews, a family friend helped him find a job as a trainee stockbroker at L.F. Rothschild. Belfort says he was laid off after that firm experienced financial difficulties related to the Black Monday stock market crash of 1987.


title: Jordan Belfort

text: Belfort founded Stratton Oakmont as a franchise of Stratton Securities, then later bought out the original founder. Stratton Oakmont functioned as a boiler room that marketed penny stocks and defrauded investors with "pump and dump" stock sales. During his years at Stratton, Belfort led a life of lavish parties and intensive use of recreational drugs, especially methaqualone—sold to him under the brand name "Quaalude"—that resulted in an addiction. Stratton Oakmont at one point employed over 1,000 stock brokers and was involved in stock issues totaling more than $1 billion, including being behind the initial public offering for footwear company Steve Madden. The firm was targeted by law enforcement officials throughout nearly its entire history, and its notoriety inspired the film "Boiler Room" (2000), as well as the biopic "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013).


title: Jordan Belfort

text: Stratton Oakmont was under near-constant scrutiny from the National Association of Securities Dealers (now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) from 1989 onward. Finally, in December 1996, the NASD expelled Stratton Oakmont, putting it out of business. Belfort was then indicted for securities fraud and money laundering in 1999.


title: Jordan Belfort

text: Belfort served 22 months of a four-year sentence at the Taft Correctional Institution in Taft, California, in exchange for a plea deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for running pump-and-dump scams that led to investor losses of approximately $200 million. Belfort was ordered to pay back $110.4 million that he swindled from stock buyers. Belfort shared a cell with Tommy Chong while serving his sentence, and Chong encouraged him to write about his experiences as a stockbroker. The pair remained friends after their release from prison, with Belfort crediting Chong for his new career direction as a motivational speaker and writer. At a motivational talk that he delivered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on May 19, 2014, Belfort stated:


title: Jordan Belfort

text: I got greedy. ... Greed is not good. Ambition is good, passion is good. Passion prospers. My goal is to give more than I get, that's a sustainable form of success. ... Ninety-five per cent of the business was legitimate. ... It was all brokerage firm issues. It was all legitimate, nothing to do with liquidating stocks.


title: Jordan Belfort

text: Federal prosecutors and SEC officials involved in the case, however, have said, "Stratton Oakmont was not a real Wall Street firm, either literally or figuratively".


title: Jordan Belfort

text: Belfort's restitution agreement required him to pay 50% of his income towards restitution to the 1,513 clients he defrauded until 2009, with a total of $110 million in restitution further mandated. About $10 million of the $110 million that had been recovered by Belfort's victims was the result of the sale of forfeited properties.


title: Jordan Belfort

text: In October 2013, federal prosecutors filed a complaint against Belfort. Several days later, the U.S. government withdrew its motion to find Belfort in default of his payments, after his lawyers argued that he had only been responsible for paying 50% of his salary to restitution up until 2009, and not since. The restitution he paid during his parole period (after leaving prison) amounted to $382,910 in 2007, $148,799 in 2008, and $170,000 in 2009. Following this period, Belfort began negotiating a restitution payment plan with the U.S. government. The final deal that Belfort made with the government was to pay a minimum of $10,000 per month for life towards the restitution, after a judge ruled that Belfort was not required to pay 50% of his income past the end of his parole. Belfort has claimed that he is additionally putting the profits from his U.S. public speaking engagements and media royalties towards the restitution, in addition to the $10,000 per month.


title: Jordan Belfort

text: Prosecutors also said that he had fled to Australia to avoid taxes and conceal his assets from his victims, but later recanted their statement, which had been given to "The Wall Street Journal", by issuing Belfort an official apology and requesting that "The Wall Street Journal" print a retraction. Belfort also claimed on his website and elsewhere that he intended to request that "100% of the royalties" from his books and "The Wolf of Wall Street" film be turned over to victims. But in June 2014, spokesmen for the U.S. attorney said that Belfort's claim was "not factual", and that he had received money from the initial sale of the movie rights that was not entirely put towards his restitution repayment. "BusinessWeek" reported that Belfort had paid only $21,000 toward his restitution obligations out of approximately $1.2 million paid to him in connection with the film before its release. Belfort has stated that the government refused his offer to put 100% of his book deal money towards his restitution.


title: Jordan Belfort

text: Belfort was previously a skeptic of cryptocurrency. He had previously called Bitcoin "frickin' insanity" and "mass delusion." After learning more about cryptocurrency and after prices of cryptocurrencies skyrocketed, Belfort changed his mind. Belfort has declined offers to create Wolf-themed N.F.T.s despite saying that "I could easily make $10 million." Belfort has also said that he is "massively looking forward to regulation" in the cryptocurrency industry. Belfort is currently an investor in several cryptocurrency start-ups.


title: Jordan Belfort

text: Belfort wrote the two memoirs "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "Catching the Wolf of Wall Street" which have been published in approximately 40 countries and translated into 18 languages. A movie based on his books opened in 2013 starring Leonardo DiCaprio (as Belfort), Jonah Hill, and Margot Robbie; the film was written by Terence Winter and directed by Martin Scorsese. He wrote his first book in the days following his release from prison (after a false start during his sentence, when he wrote and destroyed 130 initial pages). He received a $500,000 advance from Random House, and before its release, a bidding war began for the book's film rights. The former Federal prosecutor who led the criminal investigation of Belfort said that he "invented much", that "he aggrandized his importance and reverence for him by others at his firm", and that "The real Belfort story still includes thousands of victims who lost hundreds of millions of dollars that they never will be repaid."


title: Jordan Belfort

text: Belfort has given motivational speeches. This has included a tour of live seminars in Australia entitled "The Truth Behind His Success", in addition to other appearances. In a 60 Minutes interview regarding his new career, Belfort stated of his previous life that his "greatest regret is losing people's money". He also runs sales seminars entitled "Jordan Belfort's Straight Line Sales Psychology". When he first began speaking, he focused largely on motivation and ethics, then moved his focus to sales skills and entrepreneurship.


title: Jordan Belfort

text: His speaking engagements are run through his business Global Motivation Inc. and, , Belfort was spending three weeks out of each month on the road for speaking engagements. The main theme of his speeches includes the importance of business ethics and learning from the mistakes that he made during the 1990s—such as believing that he was justified in skirting the rules of financial regulators simply because it was a common thing to do. His per-engagement speaking fees have been about $30,000–75,000 and his per sales seminar fee can be $80,000 or more. The main subject matter of his seminars is what he has called "Straight Line System", a system of sales advice. Some reviewers have reacted negatively to the content of the speeches, specifically Belfort's recounting of stories from the 1990s.