Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Reports to Prison to Begin Sentence

Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced CEO of Theranos, has reported to prison to commence her sentence of over 11 years for defrauding investors by misleading them about her company’s blood-testing technology. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila had previously ordered Holmes to surrender by 2 p.m. local time on Tuesday at a minimum-security facility in Bryan, Texas.

This ruling came after an appeals court denied Holmes’ request to remain free while appealing her conviction.

Currently 39 years old, Holmes is the mother of two young children with her partner, William “Billy” Evans. Her second child was born earlier this year after she was sentenced in November 2022.

Following a federal jury’s verdict in San Jose, California, Holmes was found guilty on four counts of defrauding investors in Theranos, the company she founded in 2003 after dropping out of Stanford University. In a separate ruling this month, Judge Davila ordered Holmes and former Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani to pay $452 million in restitution to victims.

Holmes and Balwani, who were once romantically involved, were at the helm of Theranos during its rapid rise. At its peak, the company had a valuation exceeding $9 billion and garnered support from various backers, including the DeVos family and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The Wall Street Journal, owned by Murdoch, was the first to report on the irregularities surrounding Theranos’ purportedly groundbreaking blood-testing machines.

Balwani, convicted on 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, is serving his nearly 13-year sentence in a prison in Southern California.

Holmes’ story began with her vision of revolutionizing blood testing by conducting numerous laboratory tests using only a small finger prick of blood. The aim was to make blood tests more affordable, convenient, and accessible to consumers. However, Theranos’ technology ultimately proved to be faulty and unreliable.

Patients received inaccurate test results for various conditions, including HIV, cancer, and miscarriages. During Holmes’ trial, prosecutors argued in their closing arguments that she had knowingly chosen fraud over acknowledging failure.