Sentenced for deception to eleven years in prison by the American courts in the Theranos case, Elizabeth Holmes will be imprisoned before the end of the month, her last appeal having been rejected.
A federal appeals court has dismissed former biotech rising star Elizabeth Holmes ‘ last appeal against jailing, before another magistrate ordered him to report to prison authorities on May 30th.
The former entrepreneur had asked for the suspension of her sentence while the justice considered her appeal against her sentence of 11 years and 3 months in prison last November .
In a decision filed Tuesday, May 16, 2023 in the evening on file, three magistrates from a California federal appeals court found that Elizabeth Holmes’ appeal did not justify this suspension, on the grounds that her argument did not raise a question. of “substantial” law and that this appeal was not likely to overturn his conviction.
In a decision issued on Wednesday, federal judge Edward Davila ordered the 39-year-old convict to report to a branch of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) on May 30, “to begin serving her sentence”.
Solicited by AFP, Elizabeth Holmes’ lawyers did not respond.
As for the BOP, it also did not respond to requests from AFP on the future place of detention of the former muse of Silicon Valley.
Elizabeth Holmes was convicted of deception in the context of fundraising for her company Theranos, which claimed to be able to revolutionize the world of medical diagnostics.
Millions of dollars to be repaid
The technology developed by Theranos never worked as promised and the biotech closed its doors in 2018, leaving behind investors who had injected several hundred million dollars into the capital of the company.
Elizabeth Holmes has always claimed her good faith, denying having knowingly sought to deceive investors.
In a separate ruling, issued Tuesday, Judge Edward Davila ordered Elizabeth Holmes and former Theranos chief operating officer Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani to jointly return $452 million to investors.
Among them, Rupert Murdoch, to whom the two former partners owe 125 million dollars.
In an interview with the New York Times , published in early May, Elizabeth Holmes explained that even before the damages, she was unable to pay her attorneys’ fees, which the prosecution set at over $30 million.
“I will have to work for the rest of my life to pay them back ,” she said.
The press reported that in 2019 she married Billy Evans, whose family owns a chain of hotels. She has two young children.
Her story fascinated the American media, because before her downfall, she embodied a certain image of innovative Silicon Valley.
