Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Sentenced To More Than 11 Years In Prison In Fraud Case — Update

Erik Pedersen
·2 min read
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UPDATED,  2:40 PM: Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison following her January conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges related to her company’s failed blood-testing technology.

The sentence, handed down Friday by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, includes an additional three years of supervision following her release and a fine of $400 — $100 for each count. Holmes was ordered to surrender for custody on April 27.

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Amanda Seyfriend won an Emmy this year for playing Holmes in the Hulu limited series The Dropout.

PREVIOUSLY, January 3: Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was convicted today on four of 11 charges related to her company’s failed blood-testing technology.

A San Jose jury deliberated for nearly 50 hours over seven days before finding the disgraced former CEO guilty on three counts of fraud and one of conspiracy. Holmes was acquitted on four other charges, and jurors were unable to reach a verdict on three other fraud counts.

Holmes, 37, who had pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges and testified in court, faces a maximum prison term of 80 years — two decades on each conviction — but is likely to serve them concurrently. No sentencing date was set but is expected at a hearing next week.

Holmes quit Stanford University at 19 and went on to found the now-shuttered Theranos, claiming that its unprecedented technology could diagnose numerous diseases including cancer from just a few drops of human blood. By 2015, Silicon Valley had made the young CEO a short-lived billionaire as venture capitalists swarmed. But an exposé in the Wall Street Journal that year began her rapid downfall.

She was indicted in 2018, and her trial began August 31.

Holmes’ made-for-Hollywood story is the subject of a pair of high-profile upcoming projects. Amanda Seyfried plays her in The Dropout, a Hulu limited series that premieres March 3. Jennifer Lawrence stars as Holmes in Bad Blood, an upcoming Apple movie from director/co-writer Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up, The Big Short). The project originally was set up at Legendary in 2016, not long after the WSJ report was published.

Holmes also was featured in The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, a 2019 documentary by Oscar winner Alex Gibney. “People have a fascination with frauds,” the filmmaker told Deadline in an interview then.

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