Following an 11-year prison sentence, a federal judge is recommending a minimum-security prison in Texas for the Theranos founder.
Key Details
- Last week, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes received an 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors of $121 million.
- Holmes has been ordered to surrender to the Texas facility by April.
- The judge has also recommended that Holmes be allowed family visitation in the hopes that it will aid in her rehabilitation.
- Following completion of the 11-year sentence, Holmes will be under court supervision for three years.
- From the day of sentencing, Holmes has 14 days to appeal the conviction. Holmes’ legal team had previously said they are working to keep her out of prison.
Why it’s news
In January of this year, Holmes was convicted on four counts of fraud. Last Friday, she was issued an 11-year sentence.
In 2015, it was revealed that Holmes’ billion-dollar company was a fraud. By 2018, Holmes had stepped down from Theranos and the company had closed.
Holmes has one young child and is expecting another. For this reason, her legal team had asked for house arrest rather than prison time.
The Texas prison is about 100 miles north of Houston in a town called Bryan. The female prison has a population of under 600 inmates who are allowed five adult and five children visitors at a time on the weekends. The facility has access to tennis courts and running tracks.
Though the prison has a visitation policy that would allow Holmes’ family to visit, Holmes’ family is based out of California, making any potential visits difficult.
A similar facility is located in Dublin California where Holmes could be closer to her family.
Backing up a bit
In 2014, a 30-year-old Elizabeth Holmes had a $9-billion company with a billion dollar promise—that her product could diagnose dozens of diseases with a single drop of blood.
Holmes’ company Theranos was valued at around $9 billion in 2014. The company’s board had major players such as Henry Kissigner and James Mattis. Just a year later, in a report by the Wall Street Journal, the company began to fall apart as it was revealed that Holmes was not what she said she was.
The miracle, too-good-to-be-true technology was just that—too good to be true. By 2018, Theranos shuttered its doors and Holmes stepped down as CEO.
In 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Holmes and former COO Sunny Sunny Balwani with fraud. In June of that same year, Holmes and Balwani were indicted with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
In January of this year, Holmes was convicted of four counts of fraud.