Former US blood testing entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes (38), once a famous teen star in the biotech industry, has been sentenced to nearly eleven years in prison for fraud.
A federal judge in San Jose, California, on Friday announced the sentencing of the founder of start-up company Theranos. The 38-year-old pregnant woman does not have to start her prison sentence before April 27 next year.
Convicted of four scams
Holmes was found guilty of four investor frauds by a jury in January. The public prosecutor later requested a 15-year prison sentence against him.
The defense argued that Holmes should not be pardoned or sentenced to more than a year and a half in prison. Federal Judge Edward Davila has now sentenced him to 135 months or 11 years and three months.
Billionaire, then everything will explode
Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 when he was just 19 years old. The company advertised a supposedly revolutionary technology specifically for fast, effective and inexpensive blood tests.
The charismatic young entrepreneur has been celebrated as a tech pioneer and has garnered financially sound investors and prominent backers such as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Holmes himself became a billionaire. Then Wall Street Journal reports revealed that the technology didn’t work at all.
Don’t blame your ex-boyfriend
Holmes has always refused to defraud investors. He admitted his mistakes, but claimed to believe in the potential of his technology. She also blamed her ex-boyfriend and ex-business partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani for the scandal. He was also found guilty of fraud in July. The penalty is still pending. (AFP)