Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Hard News Hard Hitting News Source Global Political News

Business News

Elizabeth Holmes loses latest bid to avoid prison and gets hit with $452 million restitution bill

FILE – Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes arrives at federal court in San Jose, Calif., Oct. 17, 2022. Holmes has once again lost her bid to stay out of prison while she appeals her fraud conviction tied to a blood-testing hoax that bilked investors. In a one-page ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday, May 16, 2023, that Holmes’ appeal did not show that she would have received a shorter sentence or have her conviction reversed due to errors made during her trial. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes appears to be soon bound for prison after an appeals court Tuesday rejected her bid to remain free while she tries to overturn her conviction in a blood-testing hoax that brought her fleeting fame and fortune.

In another ruling issued late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila ordered Holmes to pay $452 million in restitution to the victims of her crimes. Holmes is being held jointly liable for that amount with her former lover and top Theranos lieutenant, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who is already in prison after being convicted on a broader range of felonies in a separate trial.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision on Holmes’ attempt to avoid prison comes nearly three weeks after she deployed a last-minute legal maneuver to delay the start of her 11-year sentence. She had been previously ordered to surrender to authorities on April 27 by Davila, who sentenced her in November.

Davila will now set a new date for Holmes, 39, to leave her current home in the San Diego area and report to prison.

The punishment will separate Holmes from her current partner, William “Billy” Evans, their 1-year-old son, William, and 3-month-old daughter, Invicta. Holmes’ pregnancy with Invicta — Latin for “invincible,” or “undefeated” — began after a jury convicted her on four counts of fraud and conspiracy in January 2022.

Davila has recommended that Holmes serve her sentence at a women’s prison in Bryan, Texas. It hasn’t been disclosed whether the federal Bureau of Prisons accepted Davila’s recommendation or assigned Holmes to another facility.

Balwani, 57, began a nearly 13-year prison sentence in April after being convicted on 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy last July. He was incarcerated in a Southern California prison last month after losing a similar effort to remain free on bail while appealing his conviction.

The verdict against Holmes came after a 46 days of trial testimony and other evidence that cast a spotlight on a culture of greed and hubris that infected Silicon Valley as technology became a more pervasive influence on society and the economy during the past 20 years.

The trial’s most riveting moments unfolded when Holmes took the witness stand to testify in her own defense.

Besides telling how she founded Theranos as a teenager after dropping out of Stanford University in 2003, Holmes accused Balwani of abusing her emotionally and sexually. She also asserted she never stopped believing Theranos would revolutionize healthcare with a technology that she promised would be able to scan for hundreds of diseases and other potential problems with just a few drops of blood.

While pursuing that audacious ambition, Holmes raised nearly $1 billion from a list of well-heeled investors that included Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Those sophisticated investors all lost their money after a Wall Street Journal investigation and regulatory reviews exposed dangerous flaws in Theranos’ technology.

In his restitution ruling, Davila determined that Holmes and Balwani should pay Murdoch $125 million —- by far the most among the investors listed in his order. The restitution also requires the co-conspirators in the Theranos scam to pay $40 million in Walgreens, which became an investor in the startup after agreeing to provide some of the flawed blood tests in its pharmacies in 2013. Another $14.5 million is owed to Safeway, which has also agreed to be a Theranos business partner before backing out.

In separate hearings, lawyers for Holmes and Balwani tried to persuade Davila their respective clients should be required to pay little, if anything. Prosecutors had been pushing for a restitution penalty in the $800 million range. Both Holmes — whose stake in Theranos was once valued at $4.5 billion — and Balwani — whose holdings were once valued around $500 million — have indicated they are nearly broke after running up millions of dollar in legal bills while proclaiming their innocence.

Holmes’s lawyers have been fighting her conviction on grounds of alleged mistakes and misconduct that occurred during her trial. They have also contended errors and abuses that biased the jury were so egregious that she should be allowed to stay out of prison while the appeal unfolds — a request that has now been rebuffed by both Davila and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-prison-e1f8ebdd48455d7e0c87f450d665a404

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Business News

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Psilocybin tea, wind chimes and a tie-dye mattress await those coming to an office suite in Eugene to trip on...

Business News

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is trumpeting Medicare’s new powers to negotiate directly with drugmakers on the cost of prescription medications — but a poll shows that...

Business News

The U.S. government is taking aim at what has been an indomitable empire: Google’s ubiquitous search engine that has become the internet’s main gateway....

Business News

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A major rescue operation is underway in Turkey’s Taurus Mountains to bring out an American researcher who fell seriously ill...

Copyright © 2023 Hard News Herd Hitting in Your Face News Source | World News | Breaking News | US News | Political News Website by Top Search SEO