Global Courant 2023-05-18 02:45:58
She rose to fame after claiming that Theranos’ tiny machines run a series of diagnostic tests using just a few drops of blood.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes begins serving her prison sentence on May 30 for defrauding investors in the failed blood test startup once worth $9 billion.
Judge Edward Davila of the United States District Court for Northern California on Wednesday set the date for 39-year-old Holmes to serve 11 years and three months in prison.
Holmes became famous after claiming that Theranos’ tiny machines could run a series of diagnostic tests with just a few drops of blood. She was convicted of fraud at trial in San Jose, California, last year.
She had asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to suspend her sentence on April 25, two days before she was originally scheduled to report to jail. The court denied that request on Tuesday.
Davila, who oversaw Holmes’s trial and sentencing, previously rejected her argument that the appeal is likely to result in a retrial, the threshold for her to remain free on bail.
Prosecutors said at trial that Holmes misrepresented Theranos’ technology and finances. Holmes testified in her defense, saying she believed her statements were correct at the time.
On appeal, Holmes is challenging several of the judge’s rulings, including his granting of evidence about the accuracy of Theranos’ test that predated her statements to investors.
Holmes’ co-defendant, former president of Theranos, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, was convicted in a separate trial of defrauding Theranos investors and patients and sentenced to 12 years and 11 months in prison.
Balwani began serving his sentence on April 20, after Davila and the Ninth Circuit Court rejected his requests to remain free on bail during his appeal.
Forbes named Holmes the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire in 2014, when she was 30 and her stake in Theranos was worth $4.5 billion. Theranos collapsed after a series of articles in the Wall Street Journal in 2015 questioned the technology.
Holmes had two children with her partner during the legal process.
