The disgraced founder of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, will be required to return to prison later this month after a court on Monday dismissed her bid to remain free while she appeals her sentence.
Holmes did not present a threat to the community or a flight risk, according to Judge Edward Davila of the Northern District of California, but he questioned her appeal. Even if Homes won her appeal, he said, it is unlikely to result in a reversal, or an order for a new trial, for all of the counts on which she was found guilty.
Previously, Davila gave Holmes until April 27, 2023, to surrender.
Elizabeth Holmes received a sentence of more than 11 years in prison in November
After being found guilty on many counts of cheating investors while running the failed blood-testing firm Theranos, Holmes received a sentence of more than 11 years in prison in November of last year.
In a separate trial, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, Holmes’ ex-boyfriend and the previous CEO of Theranos, was also found guilty on numerous counts of fraud. Last December, he received a sentence of over 13 years in prison. Davila has mandated that Balwani reports to prison on April 20 after he was denied his request to remain free while he filed an appeal.
The start of the coronavirus epidemic and later Holmes’ pregnancy caused repeated delays in the start of her trial
Theranos attracted top investors and retail partners with claims that it had created technology to test for a variety of illnesses with just a few drops of blood when it was valued at $9 billion. After the Wall Street Journal revealed in 2015 that Theranos had only ever done a few of the hundreds of tests it advertised using its patented technology, and with doubtful accuracy, the business started to fall apart.
The start of the coronavirus epidemic and later Holmes’ pregnancy caused repeated delays in the start of her trial. Holmes tried to postpone the start of her prison sentence after giving birth to her second child following her sentencing in November.
Holmes had already purchased a one-way ticket to Mexico for January 2022, while Davila denied that she posed a flight risk.
“Booking international travel plans for a criminal defendant in anticipation of a complete defense victory is a bold move, and the failure to promptly cancel those plans after a guilty verdict is a perilously careless oversight,” Davila wrote in the court filing.
Prior to making the travel arrangements, Holmes allegedly expressed hope that the verdict might change to her counsel and said she intended to go to Mexico to attend a friend’s wedding. The court accepts Holmes’ “representation that the one-way flight ticket—while unwise—was not an attempt to flee the country,” Davila said in court papers.
