Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of scam company Theranos, lost her bid to remain free in her multimillion dollar mansion while waiting on her appeal. The loss came Tuesday and less than 24 hours later Judge Edward Davila ordered Holmes to report to prison no later than 2 p.m. local time on May 30th. She is set to serve her sentence of 11 years and 3 months at a minimum-security facility in Bryan, Texas. She also lost a bid regarding money, with the same Judge ordering Holmes and former Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani to pay $452 million in restitution to victims of their fraud.
Holmes was the founder of a blood testing company called Theranos that promised a revolutionary blood-testing technology that did not do what it claimed to do. Even though Holmes and Balwani were aware of the lack of efficacy of the blood testing technology, they continued to raise money based on false claims – ie fraud.
In the end, Holmes was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud against specific investors. Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison. Balwani was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison and he began his sentence in April.
Holmes has two young children, the first born right before her fraud trial began in 2021, she was pregnant with her second during the trial and was born shortly after her sentencing. If she thought being a mom would keep out of prison, she was wrong. And selfish. Now her kids will grow up without a mom for up to 11 years.
Enjoy prison, princess! No black turtlenecks there.
Ed. Note (Karoli): Holmes is serving more time for defrauding rich people than the insurrectionists who tried to overthrow the country are. Justice, I guess.
