Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to 11 years in prison

A disgraced, pregnant tech entrepreneur once compared to Steve Jobs has been jailed in a scandal that has rocked Silicon Valley to its core.

Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced Theranos founder who was once compared to Steve Jobs before she was convicted of defrauding investors who backed the now-defunct blood-testing company, has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.

The pregnant Holmes, wearing a black skirt and blouse, was given 135 months behind bars by US District Judge Edward Davila in the same California courtroom where a jury convicted her in January.

Moments after the ruling, the 38-year-old Holmes turned to hug her crying mother. She was ordered to begin serving the sentence April 27. Her lawyers are expected to ask the judge to allow her to remain free on bail during her appeal, which needs to be filed in the next two weeks.

Holmes’ sentence was below the 135-month sentence was below the 15 years requested by prosecutors and on the lower end of the 11-14 years guidelines.

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Elizabeth Holmes (C), founder and former CEO of blood testing and life sciences company Theranos, walks with her mother Noel Holmes and partner Billy Evans into the federal courthouse for her sentencing hearing on November 18, 2022 in San Jose, California. Photo: Amy Osborne

Her legal team had asked for incarceration of no more than 18 months, preferably served in home confinement. A probation report also submitted to Davila recommended a nine-year prison sentence for Holmes.

Before Davila handed down his sentence, the courtroom was abuzz when the prosecuting lawyer, John Bostic, claimed that Holmes once said: “They don’t put attractive people like me in jail.”

Holmes’ defence lawyer, Kevin Downey, disputed the claim, saying that the prosecution never called any witnesses during trial who can testify to the alleged remark.

The sentencing marks an end to a saga that has been dissected in an HBO documentary and an award-winning Hulu TV series about Holmes’ meteoric rise and epic downfall.

Once valued at $9 billion, Theranos promised to revolutionise how patients receive diagnoses by replacing traditional labs with small machines envisioned for use in homes, drugstores and even on the battlefield.

Forbes dubbed Holmes the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire in 2014, when she was 30 and her stake in Theranos was worth $4.5 billion.

Elizabeth Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors who backed her tech venture Theranos. Photo: Amy Osborne

Prosecutors want Holmes to pay $804 million in restitution.

The amount covers most of the nearly $1 billion that Holmes raised from a list of sophisticated investors that included software magnate Larry Ellison, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and the Walton family behind Walmart.

While wooing investors, Holmes leveraged a high-powered Theranos board that included former US Defense Secretary James Mattis, who testified against her during her trial, and two former US Secretaries of State, Henry Kissinger and the late George Shultz, whose son submitted a statement blasting Holmes for concocting a scheme that played Shultz “for the fool.”

Her lawyers have argued that Holmes deserves more lenient treatment as a well-meaning entrepreneur who is now a devoted mother with another child on the way.

Their arguments were supported by more than 130 letters submitted by family, friends and former colleagues praising Holmes.

Federal prosecutors urged the judge to hand down the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Photo: Justin Sullivan

Holmes’ reporting date to begin her prison time could be the result by her second pregnancy in two years.

After giving birth to a son shortly before her trial started last year, Holmes became pregnant at some point while free on bail this year.

Although her lawyers didn’t mention the pregnancy in an 82-page memo submitted to Davila last week, the pregnancy was confirmed in a letter from her current partner, William “Billy” Evans, that urged the judge to be merciful.

In that 12-page letter, which included pictures of Holmes doting on their 1-year-old son, Evans mentioned that Holmes participated in a Golden Gate Bridge swimming event earlier this year while pregnant.

He also noted Holmes suffered through a case of COVID-19 in August while pregnant. Evans didn’t disclose Holmes’ due date in his letter.

Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor who is now a defence lawyer, predicted that Davila’s sentencing decision won’t be swayed by the pregnancy, but expects the judge to allow her to remain free until after the baby is born.

“She will be no more of a flight risk after she is sentenced than she was while awaiting sentencing,” Levin said. “We have to temper our sentences with some measure of humanity.”

The pregnancy makes it more likely Davila will be criticised no matter what sentence he imposes, predicted Amanda Kramer, another former federal prosecutor.

“There is a pretty healthy debate about what kind of sentence is needed to effect general deterrence to send a message to others who are thinking of crossing that line from sharp salesmanship into material misrepresentation,” Kramer said.

Holmes was hailed as a pioneering captain of industry in tech after claiming that her product would revolutionise health care. Photo: Justin Sullivan

Federal prosecutor Robert Leach emphatically declared Holmes deserves a severe punishment for engineering a scam that he described as one of the most egregious white-collar crimes ever committed in Silicon Valley.

In a scathing 46-page memo, Leach told the judge he has an opportunity to send a message that curbs the hubris and hyperbole unleashed by the tech boom of the past decade.

Holmes “preyed on hopes of her investors that a young, dynamic entrepreneur had changed healthcare,” Leach wrote.

“And through her deceit, she attained spectacular fame, adoration, and billions of dollars of wealth.”

Downey painted Holmes her as a selfless visionary who spent 14 years of her life trying to revolutionise health care with a technology that was supposed to be able to scan for hundreds of diseases and other aliments with just a few drops of blood.

Although evidence submitted during her trial showed the tests produced wildly unreliable results that could have steered patients in the wrong direction, her lawyers asserted Holmes never stopped trying to perfect the technology until Theranos collapsed in 2018.

Holmes at one point owned a stake in Theranos that was said to be worth billions of dollars. Photo: Justin Sullivan)

They also pointed out that Holmes never sold any of her Theranos shares — a stake valued at $4.5 billion in 2014 when Holmes was being hailed as the next Steve Jobs on the covers of business magazines.

Defending herself against criminal charges has left Holmes with “substantial debt from which she is unlikely to recover,” Downey wrote, suggesting that she is unlikely ever to pay any restitution that Davila might order as part of her sentence.

“Holmes is not a danger to society,” Downey wrote.

Downey also asked Davila to consider the alleged sexual and emotional abuse Holmes suffered while she was involved romantically with Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who became a Theranos investor, top executive and eventually an accomplice in her crimes.

Balwani, 57, is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 7 after being convicted in a July trial on 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy.

This story originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission