The female billionaire fraudster is preparing to go to jail.

According to the latest ruling, former CEO of blood testing company Theranos Elizabeth Holmes will begin serving an 11-year prison sentence for fraud on May 30th.

On May 17, Judge Edward Davila – who presided over Elizabeth Holmes' case – ordered her to report to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons by May 30 to begin serving her sentence. Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison last November, with her sentence to begin on April 27.

A few days before this deadline, she filed an appeal, seeking to remain out of custody to overturn the verdict. However, in the ruling on May 16th, the judge rejected this request. The following day, Holmes's lawyers requested a postponement of her appearance to May 30th, citing the need for medical preparation and childcare before beginning her sentence. Davila agreed to this new deadline.

The judge also ordered Holmes and former Theranos COO Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani to pay $452 million in restitution to the victims. Balwani was also convicted of fraud and has been in prison since last month serving a sentence of nearly 13 years.

Elizabeth Holmes leaves a courtroom in San Francisco in 2019. Photo: Reuters — Elizabeth Holmes leaves a courtroom in San Francisco in 2019. Photo: *Reuters*

Holmes is a rare Silicon Valley entrepreneur convicted of fraud. She dropped out of Stanford University at age 19 to found Theranos and was once considered the female version of Steve Jobs thanks to her ambitious promise of mass disease testing technology using just a few drops of blood.

Investors, patients, and even fans believed the story. Theranos raised over $700 million from investors, outsmarting even the smartest people in Silicon Valley.

The matter came to light after a 2015 Wall Street Journal investigation. According to the findings, Theranos only performed about 12 out of hundreds of tests using technology they claimed was proprietary. Even the accuracy of these results was questioned. Theranos was later found to be using third-party equipment to perform traditional blood tests, instead of their own technology.

Theranos was once a startup valued at $9 billion, helping Holmes become the world's youngest self-made female billionaire in 2015 with a net worth of $4.5 billion. Now, both Theranos and Holmes have lost everything. The trial dragged on for years. In early 2022, Holmes was found guilty of four counts of fraud, putting an end to the once-iconic tech icon.

Ha Thu (according to CNN)

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