Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos, is serving 11 years in prison for fraud
Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos, will enter a Texas jail on Tuesday to begin an 11-year prison sentence on charges of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars and lying about the blood testing technology of her biotech company.
Founded in 2003, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes claims to be able to change the future of the medical diagnostic testing industry by using an instrument called Edison that can quickly and accurately detect multiple diseases with a very small amount of blood sample. Once known as a "unicorn," the company was valued at $9 billion and was backed by many high-profile investors.
A California court convicted Holmes, 39, of four counts of fraud and conspiracy. The judge presiding over the case recommended that she serve her time at a prison in Bryan, Texas. She left behind a son who was almost two years old, who was born weeks before the trial began; There is also a 3-month-old daughter, conceived after she was convicted.
In November, a federal judge sentencing Helms, 39, recommended that she be held at a women's prison in Bryan, Texas, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Houston. Helms grew up there and aspired to be a technology visionary like Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
