Jailed Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has claimed she is unable to afford restitution payments of $250 per month to victims of her hoax blood testing startup.
Lawyers for the disgraced tech entrepreneur objected to proposed changes that would force her to repay $3,000 annually or 10 per cent of her income, whichever is greater, in a court filing this week, NBC News reported.
The 39-year-old mother of two, who Forbes once estimated was worth $4.5bn, was convicted in January 2022 of four counts of fraud and conspiracy for lying about her biotech company’s blood testing technology and swindling investors out of millions of dollars.
She surrendered to a federal prison in Texas last month to begin an 11-year and three month sentence.
Holmes and her former partner and Theranos COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who was convicted at a separate trial of 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy, have been ordered to repay victims $452m.
The out-of-pocket investors included Rupert Murdoch, who is owed $125m, and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Holmes is appealing her conviction and sentence.
In a court filing last week, prosecutors noted that the court had not included a restitution payment schedule and suggested $250 per month or a 10 per cent cut of Holmes’ earnings.
Holmes’ defence team objected, saying that the prosecutors were trying to “manufacture a record that does not exist”.
“The Court had before it substantial evidence showing Ms. Holmes’ limited financial resources,” they wrote.
Even if Holmes were to make restitution payments of $250 per month it would still take her more than 150,000 years to repay the full amount owed to investors.
Prior to beginning her sentence, Holmes had been living near San Diego with her husband Billy Evans and their two young children as she sought to delay surrendering to prison through various appeals.
Mr Evans is the heir to Evans Hotels, a California-based hospitality group of boutique hotels, restaurants and wellness spas.
Holmes dropped out of Stanford University at the age of 19 to found Theranos.
She claimed to have developed medical devices that could diagnose hundreds of diseases and medical conditions with just a pinprick of blood.
Theranos attracted high-powered board members and investors including former Cabinet secretaries George Shultz, Henry Kissinger and James Mattis.
She was named the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at age 30, after Theranos was valued at $9bn.
But when it emerged that the blood testing technology didn’t do what she claimed it did, the company imploded and she was charged with fraud and conspiracy in 2018.
At sentencing last year, prosecutors described her offending as among the most “substantial white collar offences Silicon Valley or any other district has seen”.
Holmes chose “deceit over candour” and “preyed on hopes of her investors, prosecutors said in a scathing sentencing memo.
Forbes has since revised Holmes estimated net wealth to $0.
