Time's up: Elizabeth Holmes to start 11-year prison sentence April 27th ~1~
Story by Zeleb.es • 23.04.17 11:00 am
Elizabeth Holmes lost her final bid to delay her sentence
Elizabeth Holmes, convicted fraudster of the defunct Silicon Valley medical company Theranos, has lost her final court bid to delay her sentence. She will report to prison on April 27th to begin her 11-year stint.
Holmes was supported by her partner and parents
Holmes had tried to appeal the sentence, stating that she would be "raising significant questions...that could possibly warrant a new trial," according to the BBC. A judge shut down those hopes, and her date to report to prison has been cemented.
Holmes recently gave birth to her second child
Holmes recently gave birth to her second child with partner Billy Evans. She was granted leniency in delaying her prison term for the delivery of their baby. It seems, though, that she made some questionable choices during that extra time at home.
Elizabeth Holmes tried to warm her cold feet in Mexico during her fraud trial
Holmes appears to have gotten icy feet during her fraud trial in January 2022, with court filings revealing she purchased a one-way ticket to Mexico.
Recently released court documents revealed the purchase
In the recently released documents, it was shown that the government became aware of the flight purchase, alerting the necessary parties. The filings also show that her partner, Billy Evans, bought a one-way ticket to Mexico as well.
The tickets were cancelled when the government became aware
Prosecutors stated in the filing: "Only after the government raised this unauthorized flight... was the trip canceled."
Her attorney later stated that the plans were to attend a wedding
The BBC reporteds that Holmes's attorney told the court the plane tickets were for the couple to attend a wedding, hoping that Holmes would be acquitted. The court called it "ill-advised" to have purchased the tickets and not canceled them upon her conviction.
Holmes was sentenced for her fraudulent operation of Theranos in January 2022
To remind you, Elizabeth Holmes, the wunderkind of medical technological testing, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for the fraudulent operation of her company, 'Theranos,' in January 2022. This is the same month the documents revealed the one-way flight was purchased.
Let's review the Theranos saga from the start, shall we?
Let's take a look at the Theranos saga from the start, shall we? Recapping the hopeful rise of Elizabeth Holmes to her alarming fall from grace.
Elizabeth was ambitious from the start
Holmes grew up in Houston, Texas to a well-off family. In a letter to her father at 9 years old, she wrote that "all she really wanted out of life is to discover something new, something that mankind didn't know was possible to do."
She enrolled at an Ivy League University at 18
In 2002, at 18 years old, Holmes enrolled in Stanford University to study chemical engineering. While there, she began experimenting with medical technology, sparking the idea for her future business.
She had a fear of needles and wanted to change the world
Elizabeth had long been terrified of needles and was on a mission to eliminate the large quantity of blood needed for a simple blood test, while simutaneously wanting to lower analysis costs and increase their global accessibility.
She was a college 'Dropout' by 19
At 19 years old, Holmes decided to drop out of Stanford, taking her family trust fund to form the health technology company Theranos, Inc. - the name a combination of the words "therapy" and "diagnosis."
Sunny Balwani, her boyfriend for a time, co-founded Theranos
She co-founded the company with Sunny Balwani, an American businessman 20 years her senior and her eventual romantic partner for a time. Holmes combined her knowledge of medical technology with her Herculean mission, she was declaring revolutionary blood testing abilities.
It sounded too good to be true...
Theranos' claim was to run 1,000s of medical tests with only a few drops of blood using a groundbreaking nanotainer machine named the 'Edison.' It all sounded unbelievable.
...and it was!
And perhaps it was, because there was a problem. Theranos couldn't get the technology, nor the 'Edison' to function and run the 1,000s of tests it had promised. In fact, the 'Edison' could barely run one blood test successfully.
Following
Time's up: Elizabeth Holmes to start 11-year prison sentence April 27th ~2~
Story by Zeleb.es • 23.04.17 11:00 am
Elizabeth Holmes was thriving in the spotlight...
But while the 'Edison' was failing to function, Holmes and her company were just hitting their stride. Theranos had secured a $350 million dollar contract from Safeway in 2013 and a partnership to offer in-store blood tests in Walgreens drugstores.
...and rubbing elbows with the uber-rich!
Also during this time, Holmes had been able to sweep many powerful and wealthy investors off their feet with her visionary charm. And the support of these wealthy and famous names, such as American billionaire Rupert Murdoch, furthered her unsubstantiated credibility.
Joe Biden even found her "inspiring"
Even Joe Biden made a visit to a Theranos lab in 2015, calling it "inspiring." However, according to Wall Street Journalist Carreyrou, Holmes and Balwani set up a fake lab for Biden's visit of their facilities.
But she was using 3rd-party machines in her Theranos labs
While Theranos had been giving out some unreliable test results from the ‘Edison’ to patients, most of the actual blood analysis were secretly performed on 3rd party machines, owned by Siemens, that were brought into the Theranos labs. These machines were not able to run the tests with small blood samples.
Theranos was bypassing federal regulations
But how was the 'Edison' approved by the government for use, you ask? Theranos took advantage of a legal loophole in the FDA regulation of medical devices. As explained by www.theconversation.com, Theranos labeled their nanotainer device as laboratory-developed, which per its guidelines doesn't require pre-market review or evaluation by the FDA or its regulators.
Holmes was defrauding her investors
And those corporations and savvy investors, what about them? In her contracts, Holmes required complete secrecy due to the groundbreaking advances being made by Theranos. Therefore, the company was run in complete stealth mode for proprietary purposes, a decision not many questioned. Until...
Two brave employees finally blew the whistle
Two employees of Theranos felt very uncomfortable with the way test results were being handled and the secrecy and inaccessibility of the 'Edison' machine. Tyler Schultz and Erika Cheung became the main whistleblowers to Theranos' fraudulent behavior.
One investigative journalist outed the drama
In 2015, investigative journalist John Carreyrou at the Wall Street Journal published an article exposing the use of the Siemens' machines in the Theranos labs and questioning the validity of the 'Edison' test results.
Holmes tried to salvage herself and her business
After the article was published, Holmes appeared on CNBC's "Mad Money" to defend herself and Theranos. "This is what happens when you work to change things, and first they think you're crazy, then they fight you, and then all of a sudden you change the world," she said.
It was too little too late
Unfortunately for Holmes, Carreyrou's article had done its damage, and what followed was a rapid domino effect of canceled partnerships, regulatory and governemental challenges, investor callbacks, and FDA investigations. Holmes' (and Theranos') fall from grace had begun.
Theranos, once a hope for the future, closed for good
In 2018, Theranos, the company that had raised over $700 million dollars from investors and had once been valued at close to $10 billion dollars, closed its doors.
Holmes and Balwani were arrested on criminal charges
In 2018, Holmes, along with her co-founder Balwani, were arrested on criminal charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, knowingly misleading patients, and defrauding investors.
Holmes is currently a partner, a mother and pregnant with her second child
Elizabeth was given bail after her arrest, living in a mansion in California after her conviction with her partner William Billy Evans, 27, heir to the Evans Hotel Group. The couple has a son, born in July 2021. She gave birth to their second child in early 2023.
She is now convicted of several criminal charges
Holmes' trial lasted four months, ending in a mixed conviction by the jury of her peers. They found her guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud investors and three counts of wire fraud. They found her not guilty on four other counts and failed to reach a verdict on the remaining three counts.
She has been sentenced to more than 11 years in a federal prison
Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison with 3 years of supervised release.
She apologized for her failures
"I stand before you taking responsibility for Theranos. I loved Theranos, it was my life's work," Holmes said through tears at the hearing. "I am so, so sorry. I gave everything I had to building and trying to save our company."
But many see her biggest failure is her lack of accountability
But prosecutors in her case vehemently disagreed with Holmes and her apology, stating at her trial that:"She accepts no responsibility. Quite the opposite, she insists she is the victim."
And her investors, well they really lost big time
And for her investors, such as Rupert Murdoch, the American tycoon? Well, he invested $125 million of his money in Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, becoming one of their largest investors. In 2017, he sold his stake for $1.
Holmes was given great leniency in her sentencing
Holmes's sentence start was delayed for the birth of her second child, a leniency many consider beyond privileged. Countless other women, outside of her wealth and social status, are not afforded this precious family time and must birth their children while incarcerated.
Want to know more?
Do you want more about Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos saga? ABC Studios has a podcast called 'The Dropout' with all the details. As well, Hulu created an award-winning limited TV series of the same name starring Amanda Seyfried. Check it out and let us know in the comments what you think!
