Elizabeth Holmes, former Theranos CEO and convicted fraudster, has made a final attempt to avoid incarceration in a US prison, filing an appeal last week to have her 11-year “unjust” sentence reversed – one week before she is supposed to start her term behind bars.
The mother-of-two is due to report to the prison on 27 April, after a delay for the birth of her second child in February, reports Daily Mail.
The Stanford University dropout and former biotechnology entrepreneur’s health technology start-up had rapidly soared in valuation after claiming to have revolutionised blood testing by using small volumes of blood, such as from a fingerprick.
She has been charged with defrauding investors in the company – once valued at $9bn, and on the basis of which, Forbes had named her the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in the US.
In the latest appeal, her legal team argued she did not “knowingly and intentionally misrepresent to investors the capabilities of Theranos’ technology” and again pleaded to use evidence from ex-boyfriend and former business partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.
Balwani’s testimony was not allowed to be used at her trial, “but is compelling evidence corroborating her defence that she did not intend to defraud investors with the financial projections or conspire with Balwani to do so”, the 132-page appeal read.
“The jury surely would have deemed Balwani’s inculpatory testimony more persuasive than Holmes’ exculpatory testimony.”
In December, Balwani was convicted of wire fraud and defrauding investors, and sentenced to 13 years.
“The court abused its discretion by excluding prior testimony from… Balwani that he, not Holmes, was responsible for the model that generated the allegedly false financial projections given to C-2 investors,” the appeal read.
This was an “error” that “prejudiced Holmes’ defence to this important allegation”.
Holmes also accused the court of giving her too much time for her crimes, after it tacked on 10 more years for “enhancement” for the “number of victims and the amount of loss by a mere preponderance of the evidence”.
“That was (an) error: under this court’s precedent, the court needed to find the facts supporting its severe enhancement by clear and convincing evidence,” her team argued.
“The result of this error is an excessive 135-month term of imprisonment. That is 27 months higher than what the probation office recommended for a woman who – unlike other white-collar defendants – neither sought nor gained any profit from the purported loss and was trying to improve patient health.
“At a minimum, this court should remand for resentencing.”
Holmes attempted last month to delay her prison sentence while she appeals her conviction, but Judge Edward Davila denied her request and concluded that even if she won her appeal to challenge the Theranos technology evidence, it wouldn’t result in a reversal – or a new trial – of all of the counts of which she was found guilty.
Her attorneys previously asked the judge to take into consideration her maternal role.
In denying the release appeal, Davila noted that Holmes was unlikely to flee or endanger the community, and had previously recommended that she serve her sentence at a minimum security prison in Texas, though federal prison authorities have the final say on where she will be locked up.
The all-women prison – Camp Bryan – is outside Houston, and houses about 540 inmates, who are allowed multiple weekend visitors.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Convicted Theranos CEO a flight risk, say prosecutors opposing appeal
Theranos’ Balwani jailed for 13 years over blood-testing hoax
Eleven-year jail term for fraudster Theranos founder