Update: Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to 135 months (11.25 years) in prison. Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani’s sentencing is set for next month.
Former Silicon Valley star (and Steve Jobs wannabe), Elizabeth Holmes, has arrived at a federal courthouse in San Jose to await her sentencing hearing, which could likely be the final chapter in the ongoing saga of Theranos, a sham blood-testing technology company.
Holmes, now 38, founded Theranos in 2003, and it quickly took center stage as one of the most promising startups in the world. The company touted breakthrough health technology that could test a person for hundreds of different ailments from a single drop of blood.
She famously aligned herself with the late Apple CEO and Founder, Steve Jobs, emulating several of his characteristics and practices in her own life. This included everything from religiously wearing black turtle necks to hiring Apple’s former marketing agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day. Holmes even hired many former Apple employees that worked under Jobs, including Ana Arriola, a product designer who helped work on the original iPhone.
Holmes was seen by the media and many of her investors as the next Steve Jobs, a woman whose revolutionary ideas and technology would change the world.
It wasn’t until after Elizabeth Holmes and then former president and COO, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, defrauded investors out of $700 million, that the Wall Street Journal published a series of reports questioning the legitimacy of her blood-testing tech. This prompted several investigations by federal and state officials.
In 2014, Theranos peaked with a valuation of over $10 billion. In 2015, with the release of the WSJ reports, it all started to come crashing down.
Today
According to numerous reports, Elizabeth Holmes is now back in the same San Jose courtroom where she was convicted of investor fraud, awaiting her sentencing hearing.
According to the Associated Press, Federal prosecutors have asked for a sentence of 15 years and payment of $800 million, stating that her crimes were “among the most substantial white collar offenses Silicon Valley or any other District has seen.”
Holmes’ lawyers argue that she shouldn’t receive any prison time, claiming that she poses no danger to society, was acting entirely in goodwill, and already experienced enough “dehumanizingly cruel” media coverage. The latter could partly be in reference to the several well-known documentaries retracing the fall of Theranos.
Apple recently signed on to produce its own adaptation with director Adam McKay, starring Jennifer Lawrence, though it appears after seeing Amanda Seyfried portray Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu’s The Dropout, the headliner parted ways. “I thought she was terrific. I was like, ‘Yeah, we don’t need to redo that.’ She did it,” Jennifer Lawrence told Deadline. It’s now unclear how the movie will proceed. Apple could scrap the idea as a whole.
Featured image credits: Reuters
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