Elizabeth Holmes - Theranos Fraud Trial

[Howl]

Jury will continue deliberating on Monday, January 3rd. 

[Howl]

Still early on the west coast, but the Holmes jury will start deliberations again this morning.  Day 7.  tick tok

Edited January 3, 2022 by Howl

[church_of_dog]

The jurors are deadlocked on three counts.  (no news about the other counts that I've heard).

The judge advised them to continue deliberating.

And apparently the jury then sent another note to the judge, which he will read shortly.

 

[clueliss]

I think they have a verdict

 

[Howl]

Wowza.  Not guilty on four counts, guilty on four counts and deadlocked on 3.

The not guilty counts had to do with charges of wire fraud against patients and Theranos patients.  I thought patients damaged by receiving flawed results from flawed Theranos equipment would have been some of the most egregious charges. 

[SassyPants]

I read that the sentencing is generally on the lighter side for white collar charges of this nature. I hope she is retried on the deadlocked charges. Does anyone know if these years, once determined, would be served concurrently?

[Howl]

Guilty on four counts (wire fraud against investors), not guilty on four counts (wire fraud against patients and Theranos patients) and no verdict was reached on three more counts of wire fraud against an investor.

Apparently the guilty verdicts are serious ones. 

 

[church_of_dog]

Haha, well done!

 

[Howl]

A sentencing date will be set next week. 

Quote

Allison Goldberg  @alli_goldi  tweeted: The jury should tell Elizabeth Holmes she's innocent on all 11 counts & then call back 3 days later like "oops, sorry, wrong results"

This is one thing I don't understand.  The charges related to defrauding patients, some of whom received devastatingly incorrect blood test results, should have been (to my mind) the easiest to assess guilt. 

We'll know soon enough, but my speculation is that E Holmes is going to be doing some hard time in the gray bar hotel.  Fraud is fraud, a scam is a scam. She perpetrated both for an astoundingly long time.  

Edited January 4, 2022 by Howl

[FiveAcres]

18 hours ago, Howl said:

A sentencing date will be set next week. 

This is one thing I don't understand.  The charges related to defrauding patients, some of whom received devastatingly incorrect blood test results, should have been (to my mind) the easiest to assess guilt. 

We'll know soon enough, but my speculation is that E Holmes is going to be doing some hard time in the gray bar hotel.  Fraud is fraud, a scam is a scam. She perpetrated both for an astoundingly long time.  

Elsewhere, I saw someone speculating that the jurors did not find that the patients were defrauded because the patients' doctors thought the test results were so out of whack that they were immediately retested at another lab.

My own speculation is that there was some serious horsetrading going on in jury deliberations. Some of the jurors might have believed in Holmes' guilt, but thought that the number of charges was excessive. So they agreed to agree on the more serious charges, and the remainder of the jurors agreed to let some of the lesser charges go. It will be interesting to see what the prosecutors decide to do with the deadlock charges. 

[Howl]

Well, this is depressing. A Time article speculating that Holmes' will likely receive a minimal sentence to be served in a (very) low-security facility. 

Elizabeth Holmes Will Likely Land in Fenceless, Low-Security Prison for Theranos Fraud

On the other hand, the scale of the fraud was epic, in the hundreds of millions.  Hopefully that counts for something in the judge's mind.  

Holmes is a relatively young sociopath, doesn't believe she committed a crime, is ruthlessly ambitious.  She won't fade into oblivion after she serves her sentence. 

[Howl]

NPR: Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes to be sentenced on Sept. 26

Holmes will be sentenced in SEPTEMBER, in 8 months.  She won't be in custody, but has put up a $500,000 bond "secured by property". 

She's hanging out with her partner Billy Evans (son of a hotel magnate) at a $135 million Silicon Valley estate.  Cynical me, but that 8 months is plenty of time for Holmes to get knocked up a 2nd time, probably with twins. 

No idea what's going on with appeals or if any have been filed yet. 

Balwani's trial will be over by  Sept (same judge, different jury) and things revealed in that trial (and that jury's decision) could be relevant to Holmes' sentencing. 

Interesting information shared by a juror: 

Quote

...the panel cleared her of the patient fraud counts because she was "one step removed" from patients who received false or faulty Theranos blood test. The juror also said when Holmes took the stand over seven days, her testimony did not come across as credible.

 

 

[Howl]

The judge has denied Elizabeth Holmes a new trial; she'll be sentenced by the end of the month, or maybe December.  Max for each charge is 20 years, but probably served concurrently. 

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes denied new trial, awaits sentencing

 

[Howl]

 

Her sentencing date is Nov. 18.  The judge has received a tranche of letters in her support, including one from her partner, Billy Evans.  The Evans letter notes that her dog has recently died, killed by a mountain lion.  Elizabeth Holmes is visibly pregnant with kid #2. 

She angling for 18 months home detention, because she's such a great person and who wants a pregnant person to be in prison? Besides that, she and her partner are rich and white and her dog just died...

Warning -- have your barf bag close at hand.

From SiliconValley.com: Elizabeth Holmes’ beloved ‘wolf’ dog Balto killed by cougar, and she’s confirmed pregnant: Revelations from court filing

 

Edited November 12, 2022 by Howl

[Howl]

Today is the day.  Sentencing at 10 am PST (West Coast) time. 

[Howl]

4 hours ago, Howl said:

Today is the day.  Sentencing at 10 am PST (West Coast) time. 

Sorry, gah! Tomorrow (FRIDAY, Nov. 18) is the day.  Mis-read the news!  Whatever the sentence, it's likely she won't be handcuffed and led away to prison, because rich white woman knocked up with bay-bee. 

Edited November 17, 2022 by Howl

[Ali]

If you have not yet watched "The Dropout" on Hulu, you should add it to your list of shows to watch. It is a very well done mini seris about her.

[Howl]

Judge, just go ahead and clarify the sentence.  This has been going on for hours, literally. 

***************************

The sentence just now: 11.25 years!  This is at the low end of the sentencing guidelines.  

This is such bullshit: She'll self-surrender April 27, 2023 -- over 5 months from now. White privilege. 

I'm worried she'll escape to a country without an extradition treaty.  Her partner, Billy Evans, is incredibly wealthy.  Hotel family.  I'm sure she has surrendered her passport when the jury returned a guilty verdict, but still. 

Tyler Schultz made a statement about how she created a huge rift in  his family -- he was worried at one point that he might be murdered and I think at some point he felt suicidal.  

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by Howl

[noseybutt]

2 hours ago, Howl said:

Judge, just go ahead and clarify the sentence.  This has been going on for hours, literally. 

***************************

The sentence just now: 11.25 years!  This is at the low end of the sentencing guidelines.  

This is such bullshit: She'll self-surrender April 27, 2023 -- over 5 months from now. White privilege. 

I'm worried she'll escape to a country without an extradition treaty.  Her partner, Billy Evans, is incredibly wealthy.  Hotel family.  I'm sure she has surrendered her passport when the jury returned a guilty verdict, but still. 

Tyler Schultz made a statement about how she created a huge rift in  his family -- he was worried at one point that he might be murdered and I think at some point he felt suicidal.  

 

I am pretty sure self-surrendering after many months is the norm in federal fraud cases. Yes privilege. White crime versus black crime.

It makes sense though with her pregnant. No great options here for the baby but better they be born before.
 

 

[Howl]

2 hours ago, noseybutt said:

It makes sense though with her pregnant. No great options here for the baby but better they be born before.

Pretty sure that baby was conceived for the same reasons as the first one: help Mom with her legal troubles.  

Many women have given birth in prison.

Also, this gives times for appeals and there will be appeals. 

Also, and this really pisses me off, because I think Corey Booker is generally amazing: he wrote a letter in support of Holmes.  

[noseybutt]

2 hours ago, Howl said:

Pretty sure that baby was conceived for the same reasons as the first one: help Mom with her legal troubles.  

Many women have given birth in prison.

Also, this gives times for appeals and there will be appeals. 

Also, and this really pisses me off, because I think Corey Booker is generally amazing: he wrote a letter in support of Holmes.  

Yes, many women give birth in jail and prison and conditions are far from ideal for the infant who makes no decision around conception.

As far as Corey Booker, shrug. He’s allowed an opinion. He has a long history of advocacy and legislation around reform of the criminal justice system and thus a position that she is capable of reform is well within his general beliefs. 

[Howl]

5 hours ago, noseybutt said:

Yes, many women give birth in jail and prison and conditions are far from ideal for the infant who makes no decision around conception.

True.  But shouldn't she be under, say, house arrest with an ankle monitoring bracelet?  She's been convicted by a jury and now sentenced for a substantial term.  She is, as they say, a convicted felon. 

The positive? A partner and grandparents on both sides with substantial resources who can help in raising both kids while she's in prison. 

Time will tell if Billy Evans kinds another girlfriend/partner.  He's about 9 years younger than Holmes. 

 

[noseybutt]

10 hours ago, Howl said:

True.  But shouldn't she be under, say, house arrest with an ankle monitoring bracelet?  She's been convicted by a jury and now sentenced for a substantial term.  She is, as they say, a convicted felon. 

The positive? A partner and grandparents on both sides with substantial resources who can help in raising both kids while she's in prison. 

Time will tell if Billy Evans kinds another girlfriend/partner.  He's about 9 years younger than Holmes. 

 

Pretty much every pre-surrender federal case I have seen, there is ankle monitoring. It would be unusual for that not to happen.

These case are almost always fraud and/or child porn with no history of hand s-on violence. Odds of them being a risk to broader society is low.

 It’s weird to talk about these cases because 💯 there is a lot of privilege, but most people seeking criminal justice reform don’t want less privilege, they want that same privilege extended to all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Howl]

The judge in Holmes' trial has suggested she serve her time at a women's minimum security Federal prison camp (with family visitation, pending COVID situation) in Bryan, TX. Bureau of Prisons makes the ultimate decision, though.  FPCBryan

Apparently most inmates are perpetrators of financial crimes.  "Camp Inmates are housed in dormitory-style 2 person bunk beds as well as 4 and 8 person cubicles."  

Bryan is in central-ish Texas and is home to Texas A & M University.  Rolling countryside, lots of farms and ranches. 

Edited November 24, 2022 by Howl

[Howl]

Sunny Balwani, ex COO of Theranos and Holmes' ex lover, will be sentenced today.