Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes jailed for over 11 years for conning investors over multi-billion dollar blood-testing scam
Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to more than 11 years in a US federal prison for conning investors and endangering patients while peddling a bogus blood-testing technology.
The 38-year-old was convicted by a Californian jury on three counts of investor fraud and one count of conspiracy in January. She was jailed for 135 months.
Prosecutors were also seeking $804m (£675m) in compensation from Holmes.
The amount covers most of the nearly $1bn (£840m) she raised from a list of sophisticated investors that included software magnate Larry Ellison, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and the Walton family behind Walmart.
Prosecutors had branded Holmes’ crimes “among the most substantial white collar offences Silicon Valley or any other district has seen”.
In her defence, Holmes said she believed her statements were accurate at the time. Pic: AP
Her legal team had urged the judge to be lenient and not make their client a “martyr to public passion”.
The sentence imposed by US District Judge Edward Davila was shorter than the 15-year penalty requested by federal prosecutors, but far tougher than the leniency her legal team sought for the mother of a year-old son with another child on the way.
The judge said Theranos had employed “misrepresentations, hubris and just plain lies”.
Prosecutors said Holmes misrepresented Theranos’ technology and finances, including by claiming its miniaturised blood testing machine was able to run an array of tests from a few drops of blood.
The company secretly relied on conventional machines from other companies to run patients’ tests, prosecutors said.
Holmes’ remarkable rise and dramatic downfall have been the subject of a documentary and award-winning TV series.
The now-defunct firm was once valued at $9bn (£7.5bn). Pic: AP
Once valued at $9bn (£7.5bn), the now-defunct Theranos Inc promised to revolutionise how patients received diagnoses by replacing traditional labs with small machines designed for use in homes, pharmacies and even on the battlefield.
Forbes dubbed Holmes the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire in 2014, when she was 30 and her stake in Theranos was worth $4.5bn (£3.8bn).
But the start-up collapsed after a series of articles in the Wall Street Journal in 2015 questioned its technology.
At trial, prosecutors said Holmes engaged in fraud by lying to investors about Theranos’ technology and finances rather than allowing the company to fail.
Holmes testified in her own defence, saying she believed her statements were accurate at the time.
The 38-year-old’s partner, Billy Evans, has urged the judge to be lenient. Pic: AP
‘Played for the fool’
Though she was convicted on three counts, Holmes was acquitted on four other counts alleging she defrauded patients, who paid for Theranos tests.
The judge in the case, Edward Davila, has previously denied Holmes’ requests to overturn her convictions, saying they were supported by the evidence at trial.
Following her sentencing, Holmes can appeal.
While courting investors, Holmes put together a high-powered Theranos board that included former US defence secretary James Mattis, who testified against her during her trial, and two former US secretaries of state, Henry Kissinger and the late George Shultz, whose son submitted a statement criticising Holmes for fabricating a scheme that played Shultz “for the fool”.
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A state of emergency has been declared in South Carolina as wildfires caused by dry and gusty conditions have forced people to evacuate some areas.
More than 175 fires covered 6.6 square miles in the state on Sunday as the National Weather Service warned of an increased risk of blazes in the region.
The number of fires was down to 163 by early Monday, the state’s forestry commission said.
South Carolina governor Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency on Sunday to support the wildfire response effort and a state-wide burning ban is in effect.
People in eight neighbourhoods were forced to evacuate as several fires raged in the state’s Horry County, officials said.
Soldiers used two Blackhawk helicopters to drop water 600 gallons at a time on the blazes, the South Carolina National Guard said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, firefighters made progress containing a fire in Carolina Forest, where people had been ordered to evacuate several neighbourhoods, according to Horry County Fire Rescue.
Footage showed some people running down the street as smoke filled the sky.
However, Horry County Fire Rescue announced by late Sunday that Carolina Forest evacuees could return home.
The Red Cross of South Carolina said approximately 135 Carolina Forest residents had taken shelter in a county recreation centre.
Smoke is seen rising from fires in Horry County. Pic: AP/Horry County Fire Rescue
The fire in the area had burned 2.5 square miles as of Sunday evening, the South Carolina Forestry Commission estimated.
No structures had succumbed to the blaze and no injuries had been reported as of Sunday morning, officials said.
It came as fire crews were working to contain multiple wildfires burning in four forests across North Carolina.
The largest covered around 0.6 square miles and burned in Uwharrie National Forest – about 50 miles east of Charlotte.
The North Carolina Forest Service said on Sunday that it had been made progress on the fire, reaching about one-third containment.
People flee an area in Myrtle Beach. Pic: AP
The small southwestern town of Tryon in Polk County, North Carolina, had urged some residents to evacuate on Saturday as a fire spread rapidly there.
The evacuations remained in effect on Sunday.
A decision on whether to lift the evacuation orders was expected to be made on Monday after intentional burns are set to try to stop the fire from spreading.
That fire had burned about 0.8 square miles as of Sunday evening, with 0% containment, according to the Polk County Emergency Management and Fire Marshal’s office.
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A helicopter drops water to help contain a fire in the Carolina Forest area. Pic: AP
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The North Carolina Forest Service was conducting water drops and back-burning operations on the ground and residents should expect a lot of smoke during those operations, officials said.
It comes as at least six active fires were burning in Georgia on Sunday, with nearly 5.8 miles burned in a seven-day span that brought the region gusty winds and low humidity, according to a Georgia Forestry Commission fire summary.
Officials have not said what caused any of the fires.
The dry and gusty conditions fuelling the fires are expected to fade as a cold front pushes out the dry air mass over the southeast of the US and brings rain by Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
The convergence of warmth, dry air and gusty winds is not inconsistent with the season’s La Niña weather phenomenon, which is associated with warmer, drier winters in the Carolinas, according to North Carolina State University.
The blazes come after two wildfires in Los Angeles killed 29 people and scorched thousands of acres across 24 days.
More than 18,000 structures were damaged or destroyed in the deadly Eaton and Palisades blazes, which swept across California in January.
Cryptocurrency prices have jumped after Donald Trump revealed he would like Bitcoin and other lesser-traded tokens to be in a new US strategic crypto reserve.
He said his January executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Cardano (ADA).
The names had not previously been announced.
The American president said in a post on Truth Social: “A US Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration, which is why my Executive Order on Digital Assets directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a Crypto Strategic Reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA.”
“I will make sure the US is the Crypto Capital of the World.”
“And, obviously, BTC and ETH, as other valuable Cryptocurrencies, will be at the heart of the Reserve,” he said in a follow-up post. “I also love Bitcoin and Ethereum!”
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, rose over 11% to $94,164 after Sunday’s announcement.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was up around 13% at $2,516.
XRP surged 33% while the token tied to Solana jumped 25%. Cardano’s coin soared more than 60%.
Bitcoin was trading up around 20% from last week’s lows.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on cryptocurrencies in January. Pic: Reuters
The total cryptocurrency market rose about 10%, or more than $300bn (£238bn), in the hours since the announcement, according to cryptocurrency data and analysis company CoinGecko.
This is the first time Mr Trump has specified his support for a crypto “reserve” rather than a “stockpile”. While the former assumes actively buying crypto in regular installments, a stockpile would not sell any of the crypto currently held by the US government.
Mr Trump is hosting the first White House Crypto Summit on Friday, and investors will be watching closely for more clues about the direction of the reserve plans.
His family have also launched their own coins, including his wife Melania.
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Mr Trump first introduced the idea of a Bitcoin stockpile, which would “keep 100% of all the Bitcoin the US government currently holds or acquires into the future” last summer at major industry conference Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville.
After his re-election to the White House in November, there were more calls for a strategic Bitcoin reserve, helping to send the price of the flagship cryptocurrency to new all-time highs.
Under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, regulators cracked down on the industry in an attempt to protect Americans from fraud and money laundering.
Under Mr Trump, the Securities and Exchange Commission has withdrawn investigations into several crypto companies and dropped a lawsuit against Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US.
But in recent weeks, crypto prices have fallen sharply, with some of the biggest digital currencies erasing nearly all of the gains made after Mr Trump’s election win triggered excitement across the industry.
US
US speaker suggests Zelenskyy might need to resign as Lord Mandelson suggests Ukraine commits to ceasefire before Russia
US Speaker Mike Johnson has suggested Volodymyr Zelenskyy might need to leave office in order for Ukraine to achieve a peace deal with Russia, as Lord Mandelson says Kyiv should commit to a ceasefire before Russia.
“Something has to change,” Mr Johnson told NBC.
“Either he needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude or someone else needs to lead the country to do that,” he added, referring to Mr Zelenskyy.
The Republican said “it’s up to the Ukrainians to figure that out”.
Meanwhile Lord Mandelson, the UK’s ambassador to the US, told ABC News: “I think that Ukraine should be the first to commit to a ceasefire and defy the Russians to follow.
“And then, as part of the unfolding plan for this negotiation, the Europeans and perhaps some other countries too have got to consider how they are going to put forces on the ground to play their part in providing enduring security and deterrence for Ukraine.”
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The remarks came two days after a disastrous meeting between the Ukrainian president and Donald Trump and his vice president JD Vance descended into a shouting match in the Oval Office.
Mr Johnson said: “What President Zelenskyy did in the White House was effectively signal to us that he’s not ready for that yet and I think that’s a great disappointment.”
The fallout left a proposed agreement between Ukraine and the US to jointly develop Ukraine’s natural resources in limbo.
Mike Johnson. Pic: Reuters
The idea of Mr Zelenskyy stepping aside also came up on Friday after the Oval Office meeting, with US Republican senator Lindsey Graham saying the Ukrainian leader “either needs to resign or send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change”.
Meanwhile, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said it is not clear Mr Zelenskyy is prepared to secure lasting peace with Russia.
“We need a leader that can deal with us, eventually deal with the Russians and end this war,” Mr Waltz told CNN when asked whether Mr Trump wants Mr Zelenskyy to resign.
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Every time Zelenskyy thanks US
“If it becomes apparent that President Zelenskyy’s either personal motivations or political motivations are divergent from ending the fighting in his country, then I think we have a real issue on our hands.”
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said he had not spoken to Mr Zelenskyy since the spat on Friday.
“We’ll be ready to re-engage when they’re ready to make peace,” Mr Rubio told ABC.
Marco Rubio during the meeting between Mr Zelenskyy and Mr Trump. Pic: Reuters
But Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar told ABC she was “appalled” by the clash in the Oval Office and said she met Mr Zelenskyy before he went to the White House on Friday and he had been excited to sign an expected minerals deal.
“There is still an opening here” for a peace deal, she said.
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It comes as Sir Keir Starmer hosted a summit between Mr Zelenskyy and other European leaders in an effort to get a peace plan back on track.
The prime minister said the UK, France and Ukraine would work on a ceasefire plan to present to the US.
Sir Keir, who visited Washington on Thursday, said he believes Mr Trump does want a “lasting peace” but warned Europe is in a “moment of real fragility” and he would not trust the word of Vladimir Putin.
Mr Zelenskyy will later meet the King.
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