Elizabeth Holmes Was Worth *This* Much Before Being Found Guilty

theranos executives elizabeth holmes and  sunny balwani return to court
What Is Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes' Net Worth? Justin Sullivan - Getty Images
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Elizabeth Holmes, the 37-year-old founder and former CEO of Theranos, is set to be sentenced on Nov. 18 after being found guilty on four charges of fraud and deceiving investors in January, per CNN. Government prosecutors have requested a 15-year prison sentence, a three-year release under supervision, and over $800 million in restitution, according to The Wall Street Journal.

As you may recall from the numerous books, podcasts, and TV shows (like Hulu's The Dropout) on Theranos, the company promised a new, revolutionary way to draw and test blood with just a finger pinprick. Holmes claimed that her device had the ability to detect major medical conditions, like cancer and high cholesterol.

The problem? The machines didn't work as advertised.

Holmes started the company in 2003 after raising $700 million, according to Forbes. And, her fall has been a hard one.

According to a U.S. Justice Department indictment, Holmes and “her business partner and onetime boyfriend, Ramesh Balwani,” knew the blood test device had major issues, like being unreliable and slow. Still, they told investors that the company would generate $1 billion in revenue in 2015, and at one point the company was estimated to be worth $9 billion.

By 2018, her company was done. Per The New York Post, Theranos was officially defunct by 2018, and the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Holmes with “massive fraud” the same year. She was accused of taking more than $700 million from investors.

Now, at the end of a long trial, Holmes has been found guilty on one count of conspiracy to defraud investors and three counts of wire fraud connected to specific Theranos investors. She was found not guilty on three other charges of defrauding patients and one charge of conspiracy to defraud patients, CNN reported.

Wire fraud is a term that covers many different kinds of crimes, according to the BBC. But in Holmes' case, it means using electronic communications (like email) to lie to someone in order to get something from them, usually money.

So, how much money is she worth today? I did some digging to find out.

At one point, she was worth $4.5 billion.

According to Forbes, in 2015 Holmes was worth $4.5 billion, and topped the FORBES list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women. (That's billion, with a 'b'.)

That number sharply decreased in 2016, when Forbes "spoke to a dozen venture capitalists, analysts and industry experts and concluded that a more realistic value for Theranos is $800 million." However, they noted that Holmes only owned half the company's stock, and after other investors would be paid before her, they then valued her fortune at "nothing." She subsequently fell off the Forbes list.

Forbes changed her net worth estimate to $0 in 2016.

In 2016, after accusations of fraud came to light, Forbes revised its estimate of Holmes's net worth to zero. Although experts thought her net worth at that time was more likely around $800 million, she only owned half of Theranos' stock and had lots of investors to pay back, so it made sentence to diminish their estimate, per Entrepreneur.

Now that she's convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. There's also the chance that she owes additional restitution for each of the four counts of fraud.

Her husband has family money.

Holmes married 29-year-old hospitality heir William "Billy" Evans in 2019, according to Vanity Fair. Evans' grandparents founded the Evans Hotel Group, a "premier provider of resort accommodations" in Southern California. And his parents now run the business, according to Business Insider.

She lives in a $135 million estate.

During her trial, CNBC reported that she and Evans have been living on a 74-acre, $135 million estate outside Palo Alto, California. The estate is called Green Gables, and you can check it out here.

It has "four pools adorn the grounds, including a stadium-sized Roman pool, a tennis court, a flower and vegetable garden, and a reservoir exclusively for the property."

You Might Also Like