11 years in prison for $9 billion, is It worth?
11 years in prison for $9 billion, is It worth?
2022.11.19 10:32
11 years in prison for $9 billion, is It worth?
Budrigannews.com – Elizabeth Holmes was ordered to serve more than 11 years in prison for fraudulently building a blood test startup, Theranos Inc. To the $9 billion company that collapsed.
The ruling, imposed on Friday by District Judge Edward Davila of San Jose, is far closer to the 15-year term sought by prosecutors than what Holmes’s lawyers are seeking – 18 months in home detention or at most in prison.
The ruling was made by a Stanford dropout who became a celebrity entrepreneur only to see her company crash when that technology was published as a failure.
Holmes’ lawyer asked Davila not to be released on bail while Holmes was appealing – he said he would decide at a later date. He ordered Holmes to report to the prison on 5/4, but which facility has not yet been determined.
Holmes appeared in court wearing a black dress and coat, visibly pregnant and sitting upright in a chair beside her lawyer, but did not touch the back of her seat. Hearing her punishment, Holmes’s partner, Billy Evans, hugged her where she sat. She then stood up to hug her parents, who were sitting in the first row of the courtroom behind her with Evans.
Before the verdict, Holmes shed tears in court, apologized to victims and investors, and said she took full responsibility for Theranos – not admitting the crime.
“I’m devastated by my failure,” Holmes said. “In retrospect, if I had the chance, there would be so many things that I would want to do differently,” he said. I tried to realize my dream too quickly.”
Davila has been handling the case since Holmes and her former partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the former president of Theranos, were indicted in 2018. On Friday the judge called it “troubling” on many levels.
“The tragedy of this case is that Mr. Holmes is brilliant,” he said toward the end of a hearing that lasted more than 4 hours and was successful in a male-dominated industry. The judge said that while failures in Silicon Valley are not uncommon, Holmes’s fraud was “built on misrepresentation, arrogance and obvious lies.”
Claim for compensation for victims
The jury convicted Holmes of four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy after prosecutors presented evidence and witness testimony. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The judge said he would address the victim’s return in future days. The government ordered Holmes to pay $800 million, and Davila calculated the losses resulting from Holmes’s fraud atー1 billion 2100 million.
Her lawyers say she is “essentially asset-free.”According to a pre-sentencing report by the government probation office, her “modest assets” were more than $450,000 in loans for civil settlements with securities regulators and more than 3 million in legal fees over 30 years.
At Friday’s hearing, prosecutors and defense lawyers discussed whether the judge should strengthen or shorten the length of the punishment.
Holmes’ lawyers persuaded the judge not to consider any of the charges he was acquitted during the trial, including patient fraud. Prosecutors argued that the longer sentence was justified because Holmes “showed recklessness or conscious disregard for the risks that Theranos was posing to patients.”
When the judge asked if the victim wanted to speak, only one person volunteered. Alex Schultz, son of the late George Schultz, a former Secretary of State who served on Theranos’s Star Stud board, and father of Tyler Schultz, who worked briefly at Theranos, lost trust in the company’s technology and worked before becoming a whistleblower.
Alex Schultz has reprised in court how his son was threatened by a private investigator and a lawyer hired by Theranos after turning on Holmes.
