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washington [US]Nov 19 (ANI): Elizabeth Holmes, founder of shuttered blood testing company Theranos, was sentenced to 135 months or 11.5 years in prison on Friday (local time) for defrauding investors.
After a three-month trial, she was found guilty in January of defrauding investors and lying about technical matters.
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The pregnant Holmes, who was wearing a black dress and shirt, was sentenced to 135 months in prison by U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Davila in the same courthouse in San Jose, California, where a jury convicted her in January, the New York Post reported.
Holmes was sentenced to 11.25 years in prison, plus three years of supervised release. At trial, she was found guilty of four of 11 counts related to defrauding investors, but she was not found guilty of defrauding patients.
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Holmes was found guilty on four of 11 charges after jurors found she lied to investors to raise money under false pretenses. Holmes was acquitted of four counts of defrauding patients centered on patients, and the jury was unable to reach a verdict on counts related to defrauding investors, ABC News reported.
In a San Jose courthouse, both sides of the United States and Elizabeth Holmes presented their arguments over whether Judge Edward Davila could consider Holmes’ “reckless disregard” for patients in sentencing. Davila rejected the offer because at the original trial, Holmes was only found guilty of defrauding investors.
The sentence falls short of the maximum possible sentence for Holmes, who faces up to 20 years in prison.
Holmes was also ordered to serve three years in prison following his sentencing. Holmes apologized tearfully before the judge delivered his sentence, quoting poet Rumi, “Yesterday I was smart so I want to change the world. Today I am smart so I am changing myself,” ABC News reported.
She was ordered to report to prison on April 27. The verdict marks the latest in a legal saga that has turned the former billionaire entrepreneur into a symbol of Silicon Valley malfeasance.
Shortly after the verdict, Holmes, 38, turned and hugged her weeping mother. Her lawyers are expected to ask the judge to allow her to be released on bail pending an appeal, which needs to be filed within the next two weeks, according to the New York Post.
Holmes’ 135-month sentence was less than the 15 years prosecutors sought. Her legal team is asking for no more than 18 months in prison, preferably at home. A probation report, also submitted to Davila, recommended a nine-year sentence for Holmes.
Theranos, once valued at $9 billion, promised to revolutionize the way patients receive diagnoses by replacing traditional labs with tiny machines envisioned for use in homes, pharmacies and even the battlefield, according to the New York Post.
Holmes, 38, was found guilty in January of four counts of investor fraud and conspiracy while at the helm of Theranos. The verdict follows a four-month trial that detailed Holmes’ trajectory from a Stanford University dropout in 2003 to star business leader on the cover of Fortune more than a decade later.
Ultimately, her downfall began in 2015, when journalists and regulators investigated the medical company’s faulty product, which claimed to provide accurate test information simply by pricking a finger’s blood, according to ABC News. .
A year later, with the company struggling, Forbes lowered its estimate of Holmes’ net worth from $4.5 billion to $0. Facing allegations of massive fraud by the SEC, Holmes agreed in 2018 to relinquish control of Theranos.
Since her conviction, Holmes has made three unsuccessful petitions for a new trial, citing newly acquired evidence. She has been released on bail. Holmes confirmed last week that she is also pregnant. (Arnie)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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