Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for Theranos fraud
- Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced on three counts of investor fraud and one count of conspiracy. She was convicted in January following a 3-month trial
- At trial, prosecutors said Holmes engaged in fraud by lying to investors about Theranos’ technology and finances rather than allowing the company to fail
A California judge sentenced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to 135 months in prison for defrauding investors in her now-defunct blood testing start-up that was once valued at US$9 billion.
US District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, sentenced Holmes on three counts of investor fraud and one count of conspiracy. A jury convicted Holmes, 38, in January following a trial that spanned three months.
Assistant US Attorney Jeff Schenk told the judge before he handed down the sentence that a 15-year sentence would be “making a statement that the ends don’t justify the means”.
But Holmes’ lawyer Kevin Downey urged leniency for Holmes at the hearing, saying that unlike someone who committed a “great crime” she was not motivated by greed.
Holmes had asked in court papers for a more lenient sentence of 18 months of home confinement, followed by community service, urging the judge not to make her a “martyr to public passion”.
Prosecutors said at trial that Holmes misrepresented Theranos’ technology and finances, including by claiming that its miniaturised blood testing machine was able to run an array of tests from a few drops of blood. The company secretly relied on conventional machines from other companies to run patients’ tests, prosecutors said.
Ahead of her sentencing, prosecutors had said a 15-year sentence was necessary to deter Holmes and others from fraud.
Her crimes “damaged the trust and integrity” on which Silicon Valley’s start-up economy relies, they said.