Justice is served! Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Homes, who built an empire on fake promises, has been sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison for “defrauding investors” in her failed blood testing start-up. The Silicon Valley start-up, which was once valued at $9 billion, promised to revolutionise blood testing. However, investors lost over around $144 million to the company’s sham.
A Fraudulent Woman Goes Behind The Bars…
Who doesn’t know Elizabeth Holmes? In January 2022, the U.S. District Court in San Jose convicted Theranos founder of four felony counts in January 2022. The subject of Hulu’s limited series “Dropout” is now facing her worst nightmare of making fake promises to revolutionise blood testing.
On Friday (Nov. 17), a federal judge sentenced Elizabeth Holmes to 11 years and three months in prison for “defrauding investors” in her now-defunct blood-testing startup that was once valued at $9 billion. Investors included billionaires like Rupert Murdoch, the Walton family of Walmart fame and many more. They all lost a huge sum of money to Holmes.
In San Jose, California, Elizabeth was seen weeping as the US. District Judge Edward Davila pronounced the sentence and convicted her on three counts of investor fraud and one count of conspiracy following the jury’s verdict in January, which came after three months of trial. During the sentencing hearing, Holmes cried as she said she was “devastated” by her failures and would have done many things differently if she had the chance.
“I have felt deep shame for what people went through because I failed them,” Holmes said. Judge Davila called the case “troubling on so many levels” questioning what motivated the once, “self-made billionaire”, to misrepresent her company to investors. “This is a fraud case where an exciting venture went forward with great expectations only to be dashed by untruths, misrepresentations, plain hubris and lies,” the judge said.
Lawyers Urge For A Bail…
Federal court judge Davila has set an April surrender date for Holmes. However, her lawyers are expected to request the judge to allow her to remain free on bail during her appeal. In the said appeal, her lawyers will ask the judge to uphold the jury’s conviction as well as her sentence at the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
However, there is barely any chance that the lawyers will succeed in their planned appeal or securing bail for Elizabeth. If you’re not aware of this case, Theranos was founded in 2003. Elizabeth was just 19! She was able to raise $945 million from investors in a short duration. Theranos was valued at $9 billion at one point and the Forbes dubbed Homles as “the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. And then, her downfall started.
A report by Wall Street Journal revealed huge inadequacies in the testing and that the whole concept was a fraud. Holmes was originally charged alongside the company’s former President Ramesh Balwani in 2018. FYI, she alleged that Ramesh had abused her. The company subsequently got dissolved after the scandal came out tonight.
The blood-testing company claimed to detect diseases like cancer with just a few drops of blood. The company claimed to allow people to self-administer faster and inexpensively. Â It came out that the Theranos founder was accused of defrauding investors in her Palo Alto blood-testing startup. Shockingly, investors lost around $144 million. What do you think about this verdict?
