San Francisco (AFP) - Fallen US biotech star Elizabeth Holmes must begin serving prison time on May 30 after a court denied her latest request to remain free while appealing her fraud conviction.
Holmes was sentenced to just over 11 years in prison for defrauding investors with her Silicon Valley start-up Theranos.
She was scheduled to begin doing time behind bars in late April, but her lawyers lodged a last-minute appeal on procedural issues after an earlier attempt was denied.
A court of appeals on Tuesday denied the new request and Holmes is to report to prison on May 30 to begin serving her sentence.
According to media reports, US Judge Edward Davila has recommended that she do her time at a women's prison in Texas.
In a separate ruling Davila ordered Holmes and her top Theranos lieutenant, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, to pay $452 million to victims of their fraud, which included Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch who is owed $125 million.
Holmes was found responsible of duping investors into believing that she had developed a revolutionary medical device.
The 39-year-old became a star of Silicon Valley when she said her start-up was perfecting an easy-to-use test kit that could carry out a wide range of medical diagnostics with just a few drops of blood.
But her company flamed out after a Wall Street Journal investigation into the validity of the tests.
Holmes had a child shortly before her trial and has had a second since her conviction.
