Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of Theranos, has been ordered by a court to report to prison while she appeals against her fraud conviction. Holmes had requested to remain free during her fight against the jail sentence she received for orchestrating a blood-testing hoax and defrauding investors.
She was sentenced to over 11 years in prison and was also ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to victims, which she will split with her former business partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani. The court will set a new date for Holmes to begin her prison term. The judge recommended that she serve her sentence at a federal minimum-security women’s prison in Bryan, Texas.
Holmes had attempted to delay her sentence by appealing to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, claiming that there were substantial questions about her case that could warrant a new trial, but this argument was rejected by the court. Her attorneys also argued that she should remain free to care for her children.
Holmes, once hailed as the “next Steve Jobs,” started Theranos after dropping out of Stanford University and managed to raise millions of dollars from prominent investors. However, the company’s technology was exposed as fraudulent, leading to its downfall in 2018.
Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright
