Instead, according to the complaint, she constructed an elaborate fiction that she would spend the rest of her tenure trying to keep alive, and that would lead her down the path to this week’s charges. In other words, Holmes’s mistake was that she refused to do what so many other entrepreneurs do every day, and come to terms with failure.
Also, the actual complaint from the SEC is a great read. What a train wreck 
via Kevin’s Week in Tech: Theranos, Fraud and the Failure to Fail – The New York Times
Flying Upside Down 