Theranos CEO and founder, Elizabeth Holmesreceived his judgment: 11 years in prisonwho will begin serving on April 27, 2023. The jury found her guilty ofi fraud and conspiracy, for boasting innovative medical technologies that never made it to market.
The sentence arrives for Elizabeth Holmes: 11 years in prison for the CEO of Theranos
In 2003 Holmes had only nineteen when he founded Theranos, a company that promised to be the next revolution in medical technology. The very young CEO had promoted, among other things, a medical test that she requested very small amounts of blood for analysis. Claims revealed to be false: the test did not give accurate results. Which drove the company into bankruptcy after exposure from the investigative press.
One of these reporters, John Carreyrou, now carries the sentence commissioned to Elizabeth Holmes of 135 months, just over 11 years to be served in prison.
The Judgment of Elizabeth Holmes
The judge Edward Davila closed a case that, after years of litigation and counter-complaints, had officially begun in 2018. The jury in the trial has found Holmes guilty of defrauding ten victims out of a total of $121 million, according to Erin Griffith of the New York Times.
Three counts of financial fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit it: the jury found Holmes guilty on all counts. But the judge’s sentence is milder than what the prosecution was asking for Elizabeth Holmes: 15 years in prison and a compensation of 800 million dollarsari. This is because according to the prosecution Holmes would not only have defrauded investors but also put patients treated by Theranos at risk.
Meanwhile, Holmes’ attorneys have filed a document of 82 pages asking for a lighter punishment: 18 months of house arrest and community service. In addition, they have filed a hundred letters supporting this less severe position.
A huge scandal
Holmes had promised to revolutionize the medical industry by providing over 240 tests using a single drop of blood: a “drop of blood”, pun used in the title of the series dedicated to the Disney+ story with Amanda Seyfried, The Dropout.
But journalistic investigations into the company revealed that the company’s technology wasn’t working. And Theranos was giving patients unreliable results. Elizabeth Holmes turned out not guilty on two counts of patient defrauding and one count of conspiracy to defraud patientswhile the sentence that has just arrived concerns tax fraud.
(Carlos Chavarria/The New York Times)
The most recent trial sought to determine whether Holmes knew he was giving false information. Some messages between Holmes and the COO of Theranos Sunny Balwani would prove that Holmes he knew he was defrauding investors. Balwani received a guilty verdict in a separate trial: the announcement of the sentence will arrive on December 7th.
In reading the sentence, the judge has commented: “What is the pathology of fraud? The inability to accept responsibility? Perhaps this is the lesson to be learned from this process”.