(San Francisco) Elizabeth Holmes, the former Silicon Valley star sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for fraud, will have to begin her sentence on April 27, twenty years after founding her start-up Theranos.
A judge on Tuesday denied her request to remain free pending her appeal, saying she was unlikely to succeed in obtaining a drastically different verdict.
In January 2022, after a four-month trial, jurors determined that she “lied and cheated” to raise funds, in the words of a prosecutor.
Theranos promised faster and cheaper diagnoses than those of traditional laboratories, thanks to methods presented as revolutionary, allowing multiple tests with a very small amount of blood.
Investors were won over. In 2014, Forbes appraised the fortune of Mr.me Holmes at $4.5 billion and described her as the youngest female billionaire who did not inherit his fortune.
The 19-year-old had convinced many heavyweight investors, impressed by her eloquence and determination, but the new tools had never worked as promised.
Judge Edward Davila conceded that Elizabeth Holmes, 39, does not present a flight risk, noting in particular that she has “two young children”. She was pregnant in November, when her sentence was announced.
But the magistrate believes that his appeal has “little chance” of leading to an acquittal or a new trial.
“The false declarations of Mr.me Holmes to Theranos investors weren’t just about technology,” he said in his Tuesday decision.
She also lied about “the financial situation of the company, the use of devices provided by third parties, the partnership with [les pharmacies] Walgreens and Validation [de la technologie] by pharmaceutical companies,” he explains.
In 2015, the wall street journal had published a damning investigation into Theranos, despite attempts by the leader to prevent its publication by appealing to Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the American daily and also an investor in the former start-up.
During her trial, she tried to convince the jury of her good faith. Her lawyers said she was never motivated by greed: she could have gotten rich but never sold shares, using the money to build her technology.
The fallen star also spoke about her relationship with Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her ex-COO and partner, saying he kept her under close control, at work and at home.
Mr. Balwani was also convicted of fraud and is due to begin his sentence this month. He also appealed.
The story of Elizabeth Holmes fascinated the American media, because she embodied a certain image of innovative Silicon Valley, before its decline.