Elizabeth Holmes will likely give birth before she begins 11 year prison sentence
Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will likely give birth before she begins her jail sentence of 11 years and three months.
Holmes was previously found guilty on four counts of fraud and conspiracy at the failed tech-startup, which falsely claimed it could run multiple blood tests on a single drop of blood.
The incredible story was even turned into a mini-series by Hulu titled The Dropout - you can see a trailer here:
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She appeared in court, while heavily pregnant yesterday (18 November), where she was sentenced to 135 months behind bars.
However, Holmes does not need to surrender to the jail until April 27, 2023, by which time it’s likely she will have given birth.
Holmes is already a mother to a one-year-old, whom she shares with partner Billy Evans.
Theranos was once valued at more than $9bn (£7.5bn) and pulled several high-profile investors.
While Holmes was dubbed the youngest ever female self-made billionaire by Forbes when she was just 30-year-old, and had a stake in Theranos worth $4.5bn (£3.8bn).
However, the startup eventually imploded following an investigation from the Wall Street Journal, which questioned inconsistencies and problems with its technology.
Theranos was dashed ‘by misrepresentations, hubris and just plain lies’, the judge said.
The company, which Holmes founded when she was just 19, officially dissolved in 2018 and shortly after she was charged with 11 counts of fraud alongside her former co-executive and ex-boyfriend Sunny Balwani, were both charged with 12 counts of fraud.
Balwani was convicted on all 12 charges and is set to be sentenced next month.
Holmes, who is now 38, faced a maximum of 20 years, but her legal team asked Judge Edward Davila to show leniency and requested a sentence of no more than 18 months, which could preferably be served in home confinement.
But federal prosecutor Robert Leach insisted Holmes deserved a severe punishment for engineering a scam that he said was as one of the most egregious white-collar crimes ever committed in Silicon Valley.
In a memo to the judge, Leach said Holmes had ‘preyed on hopes of her investors that a young, dynamic entrepreneur had changed health care’.
He went on: “And through her deceit, she attained spectacular fame, adoration and billions of dollars of wealth.”
Speaking tearfully in court ahead of sentencing, Holmes said: "I am devastated by my failings. I have felt deep pain for what people went through, because I failed them.
"I regret my failings with every cell of my body.”
In response, the judge said: "Failure is normal. But failure by fraud is not OK."
Claire Reid