Theranos Elizabeth Holmes lavish lifestyle to be revealed in fraud trial

Facing fraud charges, CEO Elizabeth Holmes and former billionaire, will have things like her globetrotting and taste for celebrity revealed.

Federal prosecutors will be allowed to highlight Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’ taste for globetrotting and celebrity in her upcoming fraud trial, a judge ruled, after her attorneys argued that such details could inflame jurors’ “class prejudice”.

Ms Holmes’ glamorous lifestyle included travelling by private jet, driving an expensive SUV and staying in pricey hotels while hobnobbing with influential friends and backers like former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Defence Secretary James Mattis.

US prosecutors in Ms Holmes’ upcoming trial, which is slated to start in August after her attorneys requested a delay due to her pregnancy, argued that the disgraced businesswoman’s lavish lifestyle and relationships with powerful people incentivised her to commit fraud.

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Elizabeth Holmes is facing charges of conspiracy and wire fraud for allegedly engaging in a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud investors with the Theranos blood testing lab services. Picture: Kimberly White/Getty Images/AFP

Ms Holmes’ attorneys retorted in February that details about her lifestyle should not be admitted because they could spark “class prejudice” in jurors.

Judge Edward Davila, who is overseeing the case, threaded the needle between prosecution and defence by determining that information about Holmes’ travel, salary and taste for celebrity are admissible evidence, but that details on other aspects of her lifestyle are not.

“The Government may introduce evidence that Holmes enjoyed a lifestyle as Theranos CEO that is comparable to those of other tech company CEOs. This includes salary, travel, celebrity, and other perks and benefits commensurate with the position,” Mr Davila wrote in a court document in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

“However, references to specific purchases or details reflecting branding of clothing, hotels, or other personal items is not relevant, and the prejudicial effect of that evidence outweighs any probative value.”

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Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos at a Forbes Under 30 Summit. Picture: AFP / Getty Images North America / Lisa Lake

Ms Holmes, who was indicted for fraud alongside former Theranos chief operating officer Ramesh Balwani in 2018, was once the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire.

Her now-defunct company, which falsely claimed it had developed technology to perform rapid medical tests using minuscule amounts of blood, was once valued at $US9 billion.

This story originally appeared on the New York Post and is reproduced here with permission