Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, pregnant and the mother of a young son, will likely receive a multi-year prison sentence Friday, then try to delay her imprisonment and overturn her guilty verdict, legal experts say.
Holmes was convicted by a jury in January of four counts of felony fraud, for bilking investors in her now-defunct Palo Alto blood-testing startup out of more than $144 million with false claims her technology could conduct a full range of tests using a few drops of blood. She is to appear Friday at 10 a.m. before Judge Edward Davila, who presided over her four-year criminal fraud case and her four-month trial in U.S. District Court in San Jose.
Last week, Holmes argued in a sentencing memo that she never “cashed out” on her Theranos holdings — once valued at $4.5 billion — and that she has already received a life sentence of public scorn. She asked Davila to give her no time in prison, or 18 months of home confinement, or at most, 18 months imprisonment. Federal prosecutors, labeling her a remorseless liar and calling her frauds among the worst white-collar crimes Silicon Valley has seen, asked Davila to put her away for 15 years and make her pay $804 million in restitution, though acknowledging she was “not motivated by a short-term desire for financial gain.” Holmes said in her memo she has no money to pay restitution.
