Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes again pleads with judge to reverse her ‘unjust’ conviction or reduce her 11-year sentence just ONE WEEK before she’s due to report to prison
- Elizabeth Holmes, 39, has pleaded with a judge for a resentencing, claiming her more than 11-year sentence is ‘unjust’
- She accused the court of giving her too much time for her crimes after it tacked on 10 more years for ‘enhancement’ for the ‘number of victims’
- Holmes also claimed her ex Sunny Balwani could corroborate that she did not intend to defraud investors
Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes has once again pleaded with the judge to reverse her 11-year ‘unjust’ conviction just one week before she is due behind bars.
The mother-of-two, 39, is making a last-ditch effort to avoid wearing an orange jumpsuit as she filed an appeal in the 9th Circuit on Monday to overturn her ‘unjust’ conviction in January 2022.
She is set to turn herself into prison on April 27 after it was delayed to give her time to have her second child, which she gave birth to in February.
The Stanford dropout’s legal team argued she did not ‘knowingly and intentionally misrepresent to investors the capabilities of Theranos’ technology’ and again pleaded to use evidence from ex-boyfriend Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani.
Balwani’s testimony was not allowed to be used at Holmes’ trial.
Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes (pictured in March) has once again pleaded with the judge to reverse her 11-year ‘unjust’ conviction just one week before she is due behind bars
Holmes’ team said testimony from her ex-boyfriend Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani (pictured) would corroborate that she did not intend to defraud investors
‘Balwani’s testimony is compelling evidence corroborating Holmes’ defense that she did not intend to defraud investors with the financial projections or conspire with Balwani to do so,’ the 132-page appeal read.
‘The jury surely would have deemed Balwani’s inculpatory testimony more persuasive than Holmes’ exculpatory testimony.’
Balwani was convicted of wire fraud and defrauding investors. He was sentenced to 13 years in December.
‘The court abused its discretion by excluding prior testimony from… Balwani that he, not Holmes, was responsible for the model that generated the allegedly false financial projections given to C-2 investors,’ the appeal read.
She accused this move as being an ‘error’ that ‘prejudiced Holmes’ defense to this important allegation.’
Holmes also accused the court of being influenced by Dr. Adam Rosendorff’s testimony based on his ‘credibility and competence.’
‘Given the raft of problems that followed Rosendorff from laboratory to laboratory, one of two things must be correct. One, Rosendorff was an incompetent laboratory director. Or, two, systemic testing errors at laboratories are common. Both of those scenarios tend to exonerate Holmes,’ her team argued.
Earlier this month, Holmes (pictured in October with her partner Billy Evans) was denied delaying her prison sentence while she appeals the decision. A US judge denied Holmes’ request to remain free on bail while she appeals her conviction
Holmes’ defense team previously argued that she is the ‘mother of two young children.’ She gave birth to her first son in July 2021 (pictured: Holmes and Evans with one of their children)
‘But neither was fully before the jury. Instead, exclusion of this evidence allowed the government to hold out Rosendorff as a truth-telling, competent laboratory director who thought Theranos was uniquely problematic.’
In addition, she accused the court of giving her too much time for her crimes after it tacked on 10 more years for ‘enhancement’ for the ‘number of victims and the amount of loss by a mere preponderance of the evidence.’
‘That was [an] error: Under this Court’s precedent, the court needed to find the facts supporting its severe enhancement by clear-and-convincing evidence,’ her team argued.
‘The result of this error is an excessive 135-month term of imprisonment. That is 27 months higher than what the Probation Office recommended, for a woman who—unlike other white-collar defendants—neither sought nor gained any profit from the purported loss and was trying to improve patient health.
She was convicted of defrauding investors in the failed blood-testing startup that was once valued at $9billion
Holmes rose to fame after claiming Theranos’ small machines could run an array of diagnostic tests with just a few drops of blood
‘At a minimum, this Court should remand for resentencing.’
Holmes’ attempted last month to delay her prison sentence while she appeals her conviction on charges of defrauding investors in the failed blood-testing startup that was once valued at $9billion.
Judge Edward Davila denied her request and concluded that even if Holmes won her appeal to challenge the Theranos technology evidence, it wouldn’t result in a reversal or a new trial of all the counts she was found guilty of.
Her attorneys previously asked the judge to take into consideration her maternal role.
‘Contrary to her suggestion that accuracy and reliability were central issues to her convictions, Ms. Holmes’ misrepresentations to Theranos investors involved more than just whether Theranos technology worked as promised,’ he said.
The judge recommended she serve her more than 11-year sentence in Bryan, Texas – 1,800 miles away from her family in California
In denying the release appeal, Davila noted that Holmes was unlikely to flee or endanger the community.
Davila previously recommended that Holmes serve her sentence at a minimum security prison camp in Texas, though federal prison authorities have the final say on where she will be locked up.
The prison – Camp Bryan – is about 100 miles north of Houston, where Holmes attended high school. It is designated for female inmates and currently houses about 540 inmates.
Those serving time at the facility are allowed to accept multiple visitors on weekends.
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