Elizabeth Holmes is now in court, facing sentencing on four counts of wire fraud for the Theranos startup case. Both prosecution and defense are making long arguments about her sentence, and it has’t yet been pronounced. It will come down within a couple of hours.
Holmes faces up to 20 years in prison, but the prosecution has asked for 15 years and a fine of $800 million. The defense, however, has asked for 18 months, preferably served in home confinement. In such cases the judge usually pronounces a sentence close to what the prosecution recommends. My own prediction was ten years. It will undoubtedly be served in a cushy federal prison in California.
You can watch the livestream by clicking on the screenshot below, but since it’s a federal court, cameras aren’t permitted. What you’ll see is up-to-the-minute news.
Here’s a video of her arrival in court.
It won’t surprise me to see the judge extend to Holmes the privilege of voluntarily surrendering to the facility she is designated to by the Federal Bureau of Prisons after she gives birth (although there are plenty of federal district court judges across the country who would order her remanded into custody immediately upon sentencing).
It would surprise me to see the court grant her bond pending appeal. At the risk of dating myself, such requests were fairly common back in the days before the Bail Reform Act of 1984. But under current federal law, bond pending appeal is all but unheard of, see 18 USC section 3143.
At what age or minimum amount of passed time should one (be expected by others to) start worrying about dating oneself? 😉
Long enough ago that I can’t remember. 🙂
She will voluntarily surrender–in April of next year, presumably after her second child is born. It does appear that she won’t get bond pending appeal, so you’re right on both counts (though I owe you $20 on my bet that she wouldn’t see jail time). At your request, the money’s been donated to charity (the Nature Conservancy).
Just over eleven years – but she doesn’t go to gaol until April, and doubtless will try to appeal the sentence before then.
Oscar Wilde did his time at Reading Gaol. 🙂
Elizabeth Holmes, OTOH, will likely be designated to the Federal Correctional Institution at Dublin, CA, a low-security facility for women inmates.
Holmes has 10 days to begin the appellate process by filing a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. As I noted above, I think the chances of her staying out of prison on bond pending appeal (a process that could take a good year or two) are essentially nil.
The Federal pen at Dublin has been in the news here (Bay area) for a while, and not in a good way. The former warden faces eight counts of sexually abusive conduct, a chaplain has been charged, and I believe several corrections officers also.
If I watch a single 5 seconds of the livestream sentencing of the founder of Theranos, will I get all the information that usually takes many hours?
I was glad they canned that grifter. I used to work in venture capital, I was on the other side of the table from entrepreneurs (like her) wanting money. Both sides knew their ideas probably wouldn’t work out and we’d loose dough, but that’s just VC. No worries.
To my knowledge, despite puffery and salesmanship, nobody LIED to us like she did.
D.A.
NYC
What’s your opinion on FTX and Sam Bankman Fried?
The way I read it, it was a bunch of kids doing cryptocurrency but being financed by some major VC organisations.
Don’t ask me; I stay miles away from crypto. . . .
Let me quote Bertold Brecht: “Is it worse to rob a bank or own one?” Yes, Holmes was a grifter, a charlatan. Her crime? Robbing rich people of their money through lies. Not the first time nor the last. Did she ruin the lives of rich people? To a degree yes, but these are people who had enough disposable income to use it to invest, not to feed or house themselves. They got very angry. They will feel better when she goes to jail. Then there is Ghislaine Maxwell, who destroyed the lives of innocent teenage girls, girls who will suffer the mental effects of their rapes and imprisonment by deviants their whole lives. The law demands some jail time for Holmes but jail plus financial punishment will stay with her the rest of her life. Her professional life is over. Her reputation is gone. Sorry but I dont feel sorry for her victims as much as I do for Ghislaine’s. Let her have a few years in jail and then let her out to live out the rest of her life in a kind of limbo, being a mother and hopefully reflecting on her misdeeds.