Holmes' Bad Day: Bail Denied, $452M Bill

Holmes To Prepare Affairs In 13 Days: Court

On May 17, 2023 at 9:06 pm UTC, Beth Mole wrote a blog post. The post is being discussed on the internet.

Elizabeth Holmes, who started and ran Theranos, a company that tested blood and researched life sciences, went to court on November 18, 2022, in San Jose, California. She was with her mom, Noel Holmes, and her partner, Billy Evans. This was for her sentencing hearing.

Elizabeth Holmes, who was found guilty of fraud, had a difficult day on Tuesday.

The judge, Edward Davila, made a decision in the fraud case of Elizabeth Holmes. She and her ex-boyfriend, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, must give $452 million to the people who invested in their blood-testing company, Theranos. The company doesn't exist anymore. Holmes made the company, and Balwani was the former president. They both have to pay back the big amount of money together.

Holmes asked the 9th Circuit appeals court to let her stay out of prison while she appeals her conviction. However, the court rejected her request. This means she has to go to prison for 11 years and three months. She was supposed to start on April 27, but now there's a delay because of her appeal.

Holmes tried to get bail, but the appeals court said no. They said her appeal wasn't good enough to change her conviction or get a new trial. So, she has to go to prison and her appeal will still happen later.

Holmes asked for a new prison start date. She wanted it to be May 30. She needed time to get her affairs in order. That included childcare for her two young kids. Davila said yes to her request.

Balwani got sentenced a 13-year prison term after getting convicted on all 12 counts of defrauding Theranos investors and patients. He has already started his prison term. Balwani is also appealing his conviction and was trying to remain free on bail but got denied.

Theranos, led by Holmes and Balwani, said their blood testing device could do many tests with just a drop of blood. People liked Holmes and investors gave her lots of money. In 2015, people said the company was worth $9 billion. They also said Holmes was very rich, worth $4.5 billion.

In 2018, the government accused two people of tricking investors into giving them cash for a tech startup that didn't function. The duo faces charges for allegedly lying about how good their technology was, how much money it made, and the company's relationships with other organizations. This deception occurred between 2010 and 2015.

The company began working first. Then, according to prosecutors, they started to cheat doctors and patients. This meant giving false information and changing blood test results. They also sent wrong information on their website.

Holmes was found guilty of cheating investors in four ways in January 2022. Balwani was found guilty last July of deceiving investors, doctors, and patients.

Davila made an order on Tuesday. He said Balwani and Holmes must pay back $452 million. This includes money for individual investors like Rupert Murdoch. He gave $124,999,997. They also need to pay back $14.5 million to Safeway and $40 million to Walgreens. Theranos worked with Walgreens for blood testing. When Walgreens asked for documents about the tech, Holmes sent fake documents with Pfizer's logo. Pfizer did not like the tech and did not want to invest in it.

It's not known how Balwani and Holmes will pay. Court papers show Holmes doesn't have much money but owes $450,000 to settle with the Securities and Exchange Commission. She's also spent over $30 million on lawyers.