Court Rules Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Must Go to Prison While She Appeals against Sentence

THE GUARDIAN: Holmes, who was charged with defrauding investors in her blood-testing start-up, hoped to stay out of jail while she appealed her conviction

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes must begin serving her prison sentence while she appeals against her conviction on charges of defrauding investors in her failed blood-testing startup and must jointly pay $452m in restitution to the victims of her crimes, a court in San Francisco has ruled.

Holmes, who rose to fame after claiming Theranos’ small machines could run an array of diagnostic tests with just a few drops of blood, was convicted at trial in San Jose, California, in 2022 and sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison.

She had asked the ninth US circuit court of appeals to pause her sentence on 25 April, two days before she was to report to prison. The court on Tuesday denied her bail application. » | Reuters | Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Elizabeth Holmes to Begin 11-year Prison Sentence at End of Month

THE GUARDIAN: Federal judge denies Theranos founder’s request to remain free while she appeals her conviction of fraud and conspiracy

Elizabeth Holmes must begin her more than 11-year prison sentence on 27 April after a federal judge denied the disgraced Theranos founder’s request to remain free while she appeals her conviction. » | Julia Carrie Wong | Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Update: Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Sentenced to 11 Years in Jail | 60 Minutes Australia

Nov 20, 2022 | The Bloody Lie 2022 | For more than a decade Elizabeth Holmes spun a despicable bloody lie. She told the world she’d invented a medical miracle. It was a machine which, with a tiny drop of blood, could almost instantly diagnose myriad diseases. Holmes promised to revolutionise healthcare, and in doing so fooled many wealthy investors. It led to her becoming a darling of Silicon Valley and an inspirational billionaire. But when whistle-blowers started questioning her claims, Holmes’ fairytale, along with her company Theranos, was destroyed. Earlier this year, Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty of fraud. Now it’s judgement day as she discovers her punishment.

The Epic Rise and Fall of Elizabeth Holmes

THE NEW YORK TIMES: In Silicon Valley’s world of make-believe, the philosophy of “fake it until you make it” finally gets its comeuppance.

For a decade, Ms. Holmes fooled savvy investors, hundreds of smart employees, an all-star board and a media eager to anoint a new star. | Jenny Hueston
SAN FRANCISCO — Near the end of Elizabeth Holmes’s criminal trial, her lawyers submitted into evidence her punishing self-improvement plan.

“4 a.m. Rise and thank God,” the handwritten memo began.Exercise, meditation, prayer, breakfast (whey and, as she spelled it, “bannanna”) followed. By 6:45 a.m., a time when slackers were still fumbling for the alarm clock, she was at the office of Theranos, the blood-testing company she founded in 2003.

Ms. Holmes had many rules at Theranos: “I am never a minute late. I show no excitement. ALL ABOUT BUSINESS. I am not impulsive. I know the outcome of every encounter. I do not hesitate. I constantly make decisions and change them as needed. I speak rarely. I call bullshit immediately.”

It worked. Ms. Holmes’s resolve was so forceful, and fit so neatly into the Silicon Valley cliché of achieving the impossible by refusing to admit it was impossible, that it inspired belief right up to the moment on Monday when a jury officially convicted her of four counts of fraud.

The verdict signaled the end of an era. In Silicon Valley, where the line between talk and achievement is often vague, there is finally a limit to faking it. » | David Streitfeld | Monday, January 3, 2022

Leer en español :

El auge y la caída de Elizabeth Holmes : El caso de la fundadora de Theranos podría cambiar el estatus de culto que tienen algunos emprendedores tecnológicos a los que no se les cuestionan sus ambiciosos proyectos ni se les exige que rindan cuentas. »

The Fall of Elizabeth Holmes: How Silicon Valley's Trial of the Century Unfolded

Jan 5, 2022 • Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the collapsed blood testing company Theranos, is facing decades in prison after being found guilty of conspiring to defraud her investors out of billions. The Guardian’s Rupert Neate explains how she went from "the next Steve Jobs" to convicted fraudster

Elizabeth Holmes: Theranos Founder Guilty of Fraud

Jan 4, 2022 • She was once feted as the world's youngest female self made billionaire who promised that her blood testing start-up would transform the future of healthcare but now Elizabeth Holmes has been found guilty of four counts of fraud - in a case which came to symbolise Silicon Valley's ethos of hype and corporate greed.

Related.

De la gloire à la prison, la chute d'une icône de la Silicon Valley : RÉCIT - Reconnue coupable d'avoir menti sur la technologie de Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes risque vingt ans de réclusion. »

Der tiefe Fall eines einstigen Silicon-Valley-Stars: Elisabeth Holmes wollte mit Theranos Bluttests revolutionieren – und schaffte es als jüngste Selfmade-Milliardärin sogar auf das Cover von Forbes. Dann folgte der tiefe Sturz des einst gefeierten Stars aus dem Silicon Valley. »

Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Jury Finds Theranos Founder Guilty on Four Fraud Counts

THE GUARDIAN: The jury delivered the verdict after announcing they were deadlocked on three of the 11 charges faced by Holmes

Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, has been found guilty on four of 11 charges of fraud, concluding a high profile trial that captivated Silicon Valley and chronicled the missteps of the now-defunct blood testing startup.

The jury found Holmes guilty of several charges – including conspiracy to defraud investors – following a dramatic day in which jurors said they remained deadlocked on three of the criminal counts she faced.

On Monday, the seventh day of deliberations, the jury told US district judge Edward Davila that it was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on those three charges. In response, Davila encouraged them to deliberate further, but jurors later returned and rendered their final decision.

As the verdict was read, the Theranos founder bowed her head, remained seated and expressed no visible emotion. Her partner, Billy Evans, showed agitation in earlier moments but appeared calm during the verdict reading.

Holmes was found guilty on four charges: one count of conspiracy to defraud investors, and three counts of wire fraud against investors. With video » | Karl Paul | Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Silicon Valley Can’t Escape Elizabeth Holmes: Ms. Holmes, the founder of Theranos, wasn’t a creature of Silicon Valley, or so the refrain went. But her fraud trial showed otherwise. »