Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of four counts of fraud in January, will have to wait until October to find out if she is going to prison. Holmes was supposed to be sentenced on September 26, but the U.S. District Court in San Jose, where Holmes was convicted, delayed it until October 17th without any explanation. Each count has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and while legal experts believe it’s very likely she will go to prison, she could get as few as three years behind bars, with her one-year-old child coming into consideration, per NBC.
The Stanford University dropout’s criminal case has become a part of pop culture, with a podcast and Hulu show starring Amanda Seyfried with the same name, The Dropout, bringing her story to life. Holmes was 19 when she built Theranos in 2003 with her co-founder and boyfriend at the time Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who was twice her age. It was valued at $9 billion by 2014 for what was believed to be a revolutionary technology, diagnosing diseases such as cancer, and diabetes with just a few drops of blood. However, by 2015 people realized the technology was fake and did not work. An investigation began in 2017, and by 2018, the company collapsed, and they were arrested in June.
© GettyImagesA year after the investigation began, she met hotel heir Billy Evans at a party, and by 2019, they were engaged and then married. The lengthy trial was delayed three times due to the Covid-19 pandemic, then again in March 2021 after she got pregnant. Her trial began on September 8th, and she was convicted on Jan. 3 by a jury of three counts of defrauding investors with the blood-testing technology and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud against investors. She was, however, acquitted on four counts related to defrauding patients and doctors.
© GettyImagesBalwani was not as lucky when it came to acquittals and was convicted on all 12 charges brought against him last week and is expected to be sentenced soon after her. As noted by MSN, the former Microsoft and Lotus Software employee wasn’t able to present a naive defense in court with all of his experience, which could be the reason they had very different verdicts.
