Tag: Elizabeth Holmes

Elizabeth Holmes’ request for a new trial is denied | CNN Business

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A federal judge has denied Elizabeth Holmes’ request for a new trial, according to court filings on Monday, paving the way for the founder of failed blood testing startup Theranos to be sentenced later this month.

The decision comes weeks after an October 17 hearing held in San Jose, during which Judge Edward Davila had Adam Rosendorff, one of the government’s key witnesses, take the stand again. The hearing was to address concerns from Holmes’ defense team, which claimed Rosendorff had shown up at her home after the trial concluded asking to speak with her and expressed regrets about his testimony.

At that hearing in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Rosendorff, a former Theranos lab director, reaffirmed the truthfulness of his testimony at Holmes’ trial and said that the government did not influence what he said.

In his decision on Monday, Davila denied all three of Holmes’ motions requesting a new trial. A sentencing hearing, previously scheduled for last month, is now set for November 18.

Holmes, once hailed as a tech industry icon for her company’s promises to test for a range of conditions with just a few drops of blood, was found guilty in January on four charges of defrauding investors. Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her ex-boyfriend and former COO at Theranos, was convicted in a separate trial in July. Both face up to 20 years in prison as well as a fine of $250,000 plus restitution for each count.

In September, Holmes’ defense team filed a motion asking for a new trial, after claiming that Rosendorff arrived at Holmes’ home on August 8. According to that court filing, Rosendorff did not interact with Holmes but did speak to her partner Billy Evans, who recounted the exchange in an email to Holmes’ lawyers shortly after.

In Evans’ email, he wrote that Rosendorff “said when he was called as a witness he tried to answer the questions honestly but that the prosecutors tried to make everybody look bad.” The former Theranos lab director also “said he felt like he had done something wrong,” Evans wrote.

Davila wrote in his order Monday that the court “finds that the statements Dr. Rosendorff made to Mr. Evans do not stand for any of the proposed meanings that Defendant would want and, even if they did, they would not be material to the issues” at trial.

“Accordingly, a new trial is not warranted based on the ‘newly discovered’ evidence of Dr. Rosendorff’s statements to Mr. Evans,” Davila wrote.

In a sworn declaration filed with the court on September 21, Rosendorff wrote that he stands by his testimony in the trials of Holmes and Balwani “in every respect.”

During the hearing last month, Holmes and Evans were present as Rosendorff was asked by a defense lawyer about his decision to visit Holmes’ home. He responded that in the weeks and months following Holmes’ conviction he “started to feel increasingly distressed and uncomfortable at the prospect that a young child, an infant child, would spend their formative years without a mother in their life.” (Holmes has one child with Evans.)

Rosendorff said that when he visited Holmes’ residence in August, he rang the doorbell and spoke briefly to Evans, who asked him to leave. He went to his car and started to drive away, he testified, but Evans motioned for him to roll down his window; he did, and they had a conversation, Rosendorff said, in which he “expressed sympathy for the rank and file employees at Theranos.”

When asked by the defense lawyer whether he had said the prosecution was trying to make everyone look bad, Rosendorff said that the prosecution was trying to paint “an angry picture of Elizabeth Holmes. To the extent other people looked bad it was because of their association with Elizabeth.”

He said he did not recall telling Evans that he felt he had done something wrong, as Evans had written in his email to Holmes’ lawyers after their interaction.

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November 8, 2022
Key witness in Holmes trial affirms testimony against her

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — A key witness in a trial that led to the conviction of disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes adamantly stood by his testimony during an unusual court appearance Monday. The prosecution witness, former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff, made a remorseful appearance at Holmes’ Silicon Valley home after the trial, raising questions about potential misconduct.

The 75-minute hearing opened the same day that Holmes, 38, had been scheduled for sentencing following her conviction on four felony counts of investor fraud earlier this year. She is facing up to 20 years in prison for lying to Thrernos investors about a blood-testing technology that she promised would revolutionize health care, but that never worked the way she had boasted.

Monday’s hearing provided what might be the final opportunity for Holmes to avoid prison if her legal team can persuade U.S. District Judge Edward Davila she deserves a new trial, based on the Rosendorff’s conduct. Rosendorff spent six days on the witness stand last year testifying for the prosecution during Holmes’ trial.

Davila decided Rosendorff’s testimony should be re-examined after Holmes’ lawyers last month filed a request for a new trial, based on an uninvited visit that Rosendorff made on Aug. 8 to a palatial estate that Holmes shares with William “Billy” Evans, her current partner and father of their 1-year-old son.

Although he didn’t speak to Holmes directly, Rosendorff told Evans that “he tried to answer the questions honestly but that the prosecutors tried to make everyone look bad” and felt “he had done something wrong,” according to Evans’ recollection of the conversation filed with the court.

Under questioning by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, Rosendorff said his testimony in the trial was truthful — a theme he would repeat throughout the hearing while also emphasizing that he believed Holmes deserved to be convicted. But he also told Davila he lamented the possibility that Holmes’ son “would spend the formative years of his life without his mother” if Holmes is sentenced to prison.

Rosendorff then added, without explanation, that “it is my understanding she is pregnant again.” When The Associated Press asked Holmes and Evans about that after the hearing, neither responded directly. Holmes broke into a spontaneous smile while Evans complimented an AP reporter on his shoes before they entered an elevator together.

After the judge finished his brief question, Rosendorff spent the next 50 minutes sparring with one of Holmes’ lawyers, Lance Wade, who also engaged in several testy exchanges with Rosendorff while cross- examining him during the trial.

Wade sought to to get Rosendorff to talk about about the emotional distress he had been under since the trial and also whether he was under medication during his August visit. Rosendorff refused to answer and the judge didn’t press him on the issue.

Rosendorff tailored most of his responses to Wade to emphasize that he testified truthfully while trying to dispel any notion that he considered Holmes to be a friend for whom he feels sorry.

“I don’t want to help Ms. Holmes,” Rosendorff said at one point. “The only person that can help her is herself. She needs to pay her debt to society.”

Rosendorff also tried to make clear that he believed her conviction was justified. “The government was trying to get to the truth of what happened — what Elizabeth Holmes did,” he said.

Government prosecutors spent a brief period also reaffirming that Rosendorff doesn’t believe any misconduct occurred during the trial. Davila said he would allow both Holmes’ legal team and government prosecutors to filed additional written arguments during the next week before ruling on whether he will grant a new trial — a prospect that legal experts believe is unlikely.

For now, Davila has scheduled Nov. 18 as Holmes’ new sentencing date. That’s three days after her former romantic and business partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, is scheduled to be sentenced. Balwani, 57, was convicted on 12 counts of investor and patient fraud in a separate trial that concluded in July.

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October 17, 2022
Elizabeth Holmes reports to prison | CNN Business

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Elizabeth Holmes reported to prison on Tuesday, capping off a stunning downfall for the disgraced founder of failed blood testing startup Theranos.

Holmes was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison last November, after she was convicted months earlier on multiple charges of defrauding investors while running the now-defunct startup.

Her request to remain free on bail while she fights to overturn her conviction was denied by an appellate court earlier this month. Judge Edward Davila, who presided over her trial, ordered Holmes to turn herself in to the Bureau of Prisons by May 30 to begin serving her sentence.

Holmes arrived Tuesday at Federal Prison Camp Bryan in southern Texas, a minimum security federal prison camp that is approximately 100 miles from Houston, where she grew up before moving to California to attend Stanford.

“We can confirm Elizabeth Holmes has arrived at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan in Bryan, Texas, and is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons,” a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement provided to CNN.

Her ex-boyfriend and former Theranos COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani was also convicted of fraud, and reported to prison in California last month to begin serving out his sentence.

Holmes was once an icon in the tech world, serving as a posterchild for the limitless ambitions and potential of Silicon Valley. Now, she and Balwani are the rare tech executives tried for, and convicted on, fraud charges.

Holmes dropped out of Stanford at the age of 19 to focus full-time on Theranos, a startup that claimed to have invented technology that could accurately test for a range of conditions using just a few drops of blood. Theranos raised $945 million from an impressive list of investors and was valued at some $9 billion at its peak – making Holmes a paper billionaire. She graced magazine covers and engaged in public speaking events wearing a black turtleneck that invited comparisons to the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Her company began to unravel after a Wall Street Journal investigation in 2015 reported that Theranos had only ever performed roughly a dozen of the hundreds of tests it offered using its proprietary technology, and with questionable accuracy. It also came to light that Theranos was relying on third-party manufactured devices from traditional blood testing companies rather than its own technology.

Theranos ultimately dissolved in September 2018.

Holmes and Balwani were first indicted together nearly five years ago on the same 12 criminal charges. Their trials were severed after Holmes indicated she intended to accuse Balwani of sexually, emotionally and psychologically abusing her throughout their decade-long relationship, which coincided with her time running the company. (Balwani’s attorneys have denied her claims.)

This month, Davila ordered Holmes and Balwani to pay restitution of roughly $452 million to victims of their crimes.

Before her sentencing was announced in November, a tearful Holmes spoke to the court in San Jose, California.

“I loved Theranos. It was my life’s work,” she said. “The people I tried to get involved with Theranos were the people I loved and respected the most. I am devastated by my failings.”

She went on to apologize to the employees, investors and patients of Theranos.

“I’m so, so sorry. I gave everything I had to build our company and to save our company,” she said. “I regret my failings with every cell in my body.”

– CNN’s Brad Parks contributed to this report.

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April 12, 2021
What Elizabeth Holmes’ life in prison could look like | CNN Business

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Once a Silicon Valley icon and paper billionaire, Elizabeth Holmes will now have to wake every morning at 6 a.m., hold a job paying as little as $0.12 an hour, and share bathing facilities at a prison camp in southern Texas.

Holmes reported to the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, on Tuesday to begin serving out her 11-year sentence after being convicted on multiple charges of defrauding investors while running the now-defunct startup Theranos. Her request to remain free on bail while she appeals her conviction was denied by an appellate court earlier this month.

Located approximately 100 miles outside of Houston, where Holmes grew up before moving to California to attend Stanford, FPC Bryan is a minimum-security federal prison camp housing more than 600 women offenders.

Bryan has other notable inmates. It is the same facility where Jennifer Shah, a cast member on Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” is serving out her own sentence for her involvement in a telemarketing fraud scheme.

Holmes herself once graced the covers of magazines, appeared alongside prominent figures like Bill Clinton at conferences and attracted a who’s who of investors for Theranos, which promised to test for a wide range of health concerns using just a few drops of blood. But it all began to unravel after a damning Wall Street Journal investigation in 2015. Holmes is now the rare Silicon Valley founder to be tried for and convicted of fraud.

Federal prison camps are minimum security institutions with dormitory housing, a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio, and limited or no perimeter fencing, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. These prisons are sometimes nicknamed “Camp Fed” because they’re less restrictive than other institutions.

But according to Mark MacDougall, a longtime white-collar defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, the prison won’t be a walk in the park for Holmes.

“I think people who talk about ‘Camp Fed’ have never actually been inside a federal correctional institution,” MacDougall told CNN. “It’s not a place where people would want to spend time if they could be somewhere else.”

FPC Bryan will likely be heavily populated with white-collar offenders, according MacDougall. Housing at FPC Bryan typically consists of dormitory-style arrangements featuring a four-bunk cubicle and communal bath facilities, he said.

“There’s no privacy,” he said.

Inmates at FPC Bryan are required to maintain a job assignment, according to the prison’s handbook, with hourly wages ranging from $0.12 to $1.15. Holmes will have to wear a uniform of khaki pants and a khaki shirt – a far cry from her black turtleneck days. She also can’t wear jewelry, except for a plain wedding band and a religious medallion without stones, according to the handbook, and the value of these items can’t exceed $100 each.

MacDougall noted that there’s many volunteer opportunities at Bryan, and it’s very likely that someone with Holmes’ background might find herself teaching.

“I expect she would be teaching in some fashion,” he said. “That’s a very common occupation for inmates who have some education.” (Holmes dropped out of Stanford at age 19 to pursue Theranos.)

Holmes, who became a mother of two in the time between her indictment in 2018 and the start of her prison sentence, will also only be able to see her children and other family during visiting hours on weekends and federal holidays at FPC Bryan. Holmes and her family have most recently been living in California.

As MacDougall put it, “Anybody that suggests that she’s going to be in a pleasant environment or have an easy time of it is kidding themselves.”

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April 12, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes objects to government requesting she pay $250 a month to victims after prison | CNN Business

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Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced former Theranos CEO, has “limited financial means” and should not be forced to pay $250 a month to victims of her crimes after she is released from prison, her lawyers argued in a court filing on Monday.

The move from Holmes’ attorneys comes after federal prosecutors said in a separate filing last week that “clerical errors” had resulted in no payment schedule being set for Holmes’ restitution after she is released from prison. Holmes and former Theranos COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were previously ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to victims of their crimes.

Holmes reported to prison late last month in Texas to serve out her more than 11-year sentence. She was convicted early last year on multiple charges of defrauding investors while running the failed blood-testing startup Theranos.

Federal prosecutors asked that once Holmes is on supervised released, criminal monetary penalties should be paid monthly in the amount of $250, or at least 10% of her wages, whichever is greater.

In the latest filing, Holmes’ attorneys argued “there is no basis in the record for the payment structure in the government’s request,” but did not object to her being asked to start paying $25 per quarter as part of her restitution while she is in prison.

Holmes, once a paper billionaire, could hold a job at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, with hourly wages ranging from $0.12 to $1.15, according to the prison’s handbook.

Theranos once claimed to have invented technology that could test for a range of conditions using a few drops of blood. It was valued at some $9 billion at its peak and raised money from a long list of prominent investors. Then it all began to unravel after a damning Wall Street Journal report cast doubt on the company’s claims.

As part of the original restitution order, some $125 million is owed to media mogul Rupert Murdoch, as well as millions in payments to other Theranos investors.

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April 12, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes must report to prison this month while waiting out her appeal, judge rules | CNN Business

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A judge on Monday denied Elizabeth Holmes’ request to remain free while she appeals her conviction, setting the stage for the disgraced Theranos founder to report to prison later this month.

In his order, Judge Edward Davila of the Northern District of California said Holmes does not pose a danger to the community or a flight risk, but he cast doubt on her appeal. Even if Homes won her appeal, he said, it is unlikely to result in a reversal, or an order for a new trial, for all of the counts on which she was found guilty.

Davila previously ordered Holmes to turn herself into custody on April 27, 2023.

Holmes was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison last November, after she was convicted months earlier on multiple charges of defrauding investors while running the failed blood testing startup Theranos. Attorneys for Holmes did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment on the ruling.

Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, Holmes’ ex-boyfriend and the former chief operating officer at Theranos, was also found guilty on multiple counts of fraud in a separate trial. He was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison last December. Balwani’s request to remain out of prison during his appeal was also denied, and he has been ordered by Davila to surrender to prison on April 20.

Once valued at $9 billion, Theranos attracted top investors and retail partners with claims that it had developed technology to test for a wide range of conditions using just a few drops of blood. The company began to unravel after a Wall Street Journal investigation in 2015 reported that Theranos had only ever performed roughly a dozen of the hundreds of tests it offered using its proprietary technology, and with questionable accuracy.

Holmes’ trial was initially delayed multiple times, due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and then because of her pregnancy. Following her sentencing in November, Holmes sought to delay the start of her prison term after giving birth to her second child.

While Davila denied Holmes represented a flight risk, he also addressed the fact that she had previously booked a one-way ticket to Mexico in January 2022.

“Booking international travel plans for a criminal defendant in anticipation of a complete defense victory is a bold move, and the failure to promptly cancel those plans after a guilty verdict is a perilously careless oversight,” Davila wrote in the court filing.

Holmes’ attorneys had previously claimed that Holmes had hoped the verdict would be different when booking the travel plans and that she wanted to make this trip to attend the wedding of friends in Mexico. Davila wrote in court documents that the court accepts Holmes’ “representation that the oneway flight ticket—while ill-advised—was not an attempt to flee the country.”

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April 12, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes delays start of prison sentence with last-minute appeal | CNN Business

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Elizabeth Holmes won’t be starting her 11-year prison sentence just yet.

The disgraced Theranos founder was previously expected to report to prison on Thursday, but she will remain free a little longer while the court considers a last-minute appeal, according to a filing Tuesday night.

Holmes was sentenced last November after she was convicted months earlier on multiple charges of defrauding investors while running the now-defunct blood testing startup. Earlier this month, her request to remain free while she appeals her conviction was denied by a judge, setting her up to report to prison on April 27.

On Tuesday, however, Holmes’ legal team filed an appeal of the judge’s decision. As a result, Holmes can remain free on bail while the latest appeal is considered by the court, as per the court’s rules.

Holmes dropped out of Stanford at the age of 19 to focus full-time on Theranos, the health tech startup which claimed to have invented technology that could accurately test for a range of conditions using just a few drops of blood. Theranos raised $945 million from an impressive list of investors and was valued at some $9 billion at its peak – making Holmes a paper billionaire.

Her company began to unravel after a Wall Street Journal investigation in 2015 reported that Theranos had only ever performed roughly a dozen of the hundreds of tests it offered using its proprietary technology, and with questionable accuracy. It also came to light that Theranos was relying on third-party manufactured devices from traditional blood testing companies rather than its own technology.

Holmes’ ex-boyfriend and former COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani was indicted alongside Holmes and convicted of fraud in a separate trial. Like Holmes, Balwani’s legal team delayed the start of his prison sentence by roughly a month with an appeal.

Balwani reported to prison last week to serve out his nearly 13-year sentence.

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April 12, 2021
Elizabeth Holmes could be released from prison two years earlier than expected | CNN Business

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Disgraced former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes could be out of prison nearly two years earlier than expected, according to the projected release date posted by the Bureau of Prisons.

Holmes reported to a Texas prison camp in late May after being sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison at the end of last year. The Bureau of Prisons online database now reports, however, that Holmes’ expected release date is December 29, 2032 – which would take roughly two years off of her full sentence.

The discrepancy appears to be due to how the Bureau of Prisons calculates its estimated release date.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons told CNN that the agency cannot comment on the conditions of any individual inmate, but said that inmates can earn Good Conduct Time (or GCT) that is calculated into their projected release date. Qualified inmates are currently eligible for up to 54 days of GCT time for each year of the sentence imposed by the court.

Moreover, inmates have other ways of earning time credits while incarcerated, the spokesperson said, pointing to a range of other factors that could go into calculating the agency’s estimated release date, including an inmate’s participation in various prison programs. These factors that go into calculating an estimated release date are not unique to Holmes’ case, but standard for inmates.

Holmes is currently serving out her sentence at Federal Prison Camp Bryan, a minimum security federal prison camp that is approximately 100 miles from Houston. Her request to remain free on bail while she fights to overturn her conviction was denied by an appellate court in May.

Holmes was once an icon in the tech world, serving as a poster child for the limitless ambitions and potential of Silicon Valley. She is now one of the rare tech executives to be serving prison time after being convicted early last year on multiple charges of defrauding investors while running Theranos.

Theranos was valued at $9 billion at its peak – making Holmes a paper billionaire. The company began to unravel after a Wall Street Journal investigation in 2015 reported that Theranos had only ever performed roughly a dozen of the hundreds of tests it offered using its proprietary technology, and with questionable accuracy. It also came to light that Theranos was relying on third-party manufactured devices from traditional blood testing companies rather than its own technology.

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April 12, 2021