Elizabeth Holmes Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison

Elizabeth Holmes is an American entrepreneur and founder of Theranos, a now-defunct company that promised to revolutionize blood testing. She was indicted on multiple counts of fraud in 2018 and faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted. After multiple delays, today she was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison.

Elizabeth Holmes Early Days

Holmes was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Houston, Texas. She is the daughter of Noel and Christian Holmes. Her father worked as an energy adviser and her mother was a homemaker. She has two older brothers. She attended St. John’s School, a private preparatory school in Houston, before enrolling at Stanford University in 2002. At Stanford, she studied chemical engineering and business, and met her future Theranos co-founder, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.

The Theranos Story

Holmes founded Theranos in 2003, dropped out of Stanford University, and raised millions of dollars from investors on the promise that her company’s technology could perform blood tests with a few drops of blood from a finger prick.

After that, Holmes became a Silicon Valley celebrity, appearing on magazine covers and befriending powerful figures like former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. In 2014, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. But as doubts about Theranos’ technology emerged, her reputation quickly unraveled.

In 2018, The Wall Street Journal published an investigation that raised serious questions about Theranos. The publication stated that the technology did not work as advertised and that business practices were deeply flawed. Federal prosecutors soon launched a criminal investigation into the company. That same year, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Theranos and Holmes with fraudulently raising hundreds of millions of dollars from investors who couldn’t differentiate between a good investment and a bad investment.

Holmes had pleaded not guilty to all charges against her. Today she received a sentence of 11 years and 3 months in prison.