CA - Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos) Wire Fraud Thread *Guilty* #2

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Looks like the court site changed what the motions hearing will be about.

Friday, Mar 17 2023
10:00AM
5:18-cr-00258-EJD-1 - USA v. Elizabeth A. Holmes (NC)
Motion for Release Pending Appeal (In-Court Proceeding)
Motion to Strike (In-Court Proceeding)
Restitution Hearing (In-Court Proceeding)

link: CALENDAR
 
And this is where the prosecutor just goes stupid. First, this wasn't a loan but wealthy individuals investing in a start-up!

You don't sentence an individual to prison for more than a decade -- one that will never be hired and/or earn significant money in her life -- only to calculate some insane restitution order as if the investment dollars on a start-up were a loan. MOO

 
You don't sentence an individual to prison for more than a decade -- one that will never be hired and/or earn significant money in her life -- only to calculate some insane restitution order as if the investment dollars on a start-up were a loan. MOO
I don't know. She was clearly defrauding her investors. She claimed that the Edison devices were working machines when they weren't and faked the demos. She also claimed that the devices were being used to test blood inside drugstores and on military helicopters when that wasn't true.

Were her actions so different from Bernie Madoff who claimed he was using some kind of split-strike conversion investment strategy when he was really just running a Ponzi?

Now, I don't have too much sympathy for her wealthy investors who had plenty of opportunities to do their due diligence but chose not to for whatever reason. They were foolish, but they were bamboozled by Holmes. I think the sheer vastness of the dollar amounts makes it seem like a ridiculous restitution, but shouldn't the principle should be the same whether the investment is a few thousand in a restaurant with faked receipts or a billion dollars in a highly lauded biotech firm?
 
The restitution demand is no more absurd than consecutive life sentences without parole.
 
Judge Davila just denied Balwani's request to remain out of bond pending his appeal and ordered him to report to prison on 3/16/23 (one day later than 3/15, the date first imposed).

I don't see Davila ruling differently for Holmes.

 
I shall shorten this up a bit... :)


Friday, March 17th:
*Motions Hearing (for release pending appeal, Motion to strike) & Restitution Hearing (@ 10am PT) - CA – *Elizabeth A. Holmes (34/now 39) (CEO of Theranos) charged (March, 2018) & indicted (6/14/18) & arraigned (6/15/18) with 9 counts of wire fraud & 2 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and charged & indicted (4/11/20) with fraud relating to a patient's blood test. Another count of wire fraud was added in 2020, bringing the total number of felony charges to 12. Plead not guilty. $500K unsecured bond. Out on bond. Faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison & up to $2.75 million in fines, plus restitution, & $250K for each individual count of wire fraud & conspiracy. Holmes released on $500K bond secured by property.
Defrauding investors out of $700 million in funding for their blood-testing startup Theranos.
Trial began on 8/31/21 with jury selection & completed on 9/1/21. Trial began on 9/8/21 & ended with closing arguments on 12/17/21. Jury began deliberations on 12/17: ½ an hour. 12/20: 6 ½ hours with 1 hour lunch. 12/21: ~7 ½ hours. 12/23: ~7 ½ hours. 12/27: ~7 ½ hours. 12/28: ~7 ½ hours. 12/29: ~7 ½ hours. 1/3/22: 6 hours 20 minutes. Total: ~51 hours. Verdict on 1/3/22: Count 1 - conspiracy to defraud investors GUILTY, Count 2 - conspiracy to defraud patients NOT GUILTY, Count 3 - wire fraud Alan Eisenman $99k NO VERDICT, Count 4 - wire fraud Black Diamond Chris Lucas $5.3M NO VERDICT, Count 5 - wire fraud Hall Group Bryan Tolbert $4.9M NO VERDICT, Count 6 - wire fraud Brian Grossman $38M GUILTY, Count 7 - wire fraud DeVos family $100M GUILTY, Count 8 - wire fraud former Cravath attorney Dan Mosley $6M GUILTY, Count 9 - wire fraud count for the patient Erin Tompkins who received bogus HIV results NOT GUILTY, Count 10 - wire fraud patient Mehrl K. Ellsworth who received bogus prostate cancer tests NOT GUILTY & Count 11 - wire fraud $1.1M ads that Theranos paid in the Arizona market NOT GUILTY. Government will dismiss counts 3, 4 & 5. Sentencing hearing on 9/26/22 & rescheduled on 10/17/22 & rescheduled to 11/18/22. Judge Edward Davila denied all 3 of Holmes’ motions requesting new trial. Judge Ed Davila sentenced Elizabeth Holmes to 11 years & 3 months (135 months) in prison plus 3 years of supervised release on 11/23/22. The judge set a surrender date for 4/27/23.

Indictment & court info from 4/11/20 thru 11/7/22 reference post #526 here:
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...s-theranos-wire-fraud-thread-2.604309/page-27

11/9/22 Update: Holmes & her legal defense team are asking for an 18-month period of house arrest, as opposed to the maximum 80 years of potential jail time the Theranos founder faces. In a lengthy memo pleading for leniency, Holmes requested that the court “look beyond that caricature,” of her in the media & “examine Ms. Holmes the human being.” Sentencing hearing on 11/18/22.
11/18/22 Update: Sentencing – for more info see posts# 533 & 539 here:
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...s-theranos-wire-fraud-thread-2.604309/page-27
For more info see post #553 here:
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...s-theranos-wire-fraud-thread-2.604309/page-28
Judge Davila concluded the total loss in share value that can be attributed to Holmes' fraud is $121M. He concluded the guidelines for her sentencing is 135-168 months (11 to 14 years). Judge Ed Davila sentenced Elizabeth Holmes to 11 years & 3 months (135 months) in prison plus 3 years of supervised release. The judge set a surrender date for 4/27/23. The Court makes the following recommendation: The Defendant be designated to the Federal Prison Camp at Bryan, Texas. The Court finds that family visitation enhances rehabilitation.

11/22/22 Update: Holmes has at least one more opportunity to stay out of prison after a judge on Friday sentenced her to 11 years & three months behind bars for defrauding a group of investors in her collapsed blood-testing startup, Theranos. Holmes’ freedom is dependent upon an expected appeal of her case, which her lawyers must file within two weeks. Once an appeal is filed, Holmes can request to remain out of custody while her appeal is considered by the 9th Circuit Court of appeals.
11/23/22 Update: U.S. District Judge Edward Davila recommended that Holmes serve her more than 11 year sentence in a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.
12/5/22: Holmes has asked an appeals court to overturn her conviction in the Theranos fraud trial that saw her sentenced to more than 11 years in prison. Holmes & her legal team have until March 3, 2023 to file briefs & trial transcripts backing their petition, according to a notice posted to the docket on Monday by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California. Holmes's appeal said she is challenging the prison sentence handed down in November, as well as "any & all adverse rulings incorporated in, antecedent to, or ancillary to the judgment."
12/12/22 Update: Motion for miscellaneous relief hearing on 1/23/23 @ 1:30pm. 1/3/23 Update: USCA Case Number 22-10312 for 1670 Notice of Appeal. Order: Granting 1707 Stipulation Setting Briefing Schedule & Hearings. Motion Hearing as to Holmes re 1676 Motion for Release Pending Appeal set for 3/17/23 @ 10:00am in San Jose, Courtroom 4, 5th Floor before Judge Edward J. Davila. Opposition due by 1/19/23; Reply due by 2/23/23.
1/13/23 Update: After Holmes leaves prison one that involves her completing a mental health program. The docs say Holmes must also cooperate in the collection of DNA, and must be willing to submit herself, her home, office, vehicle and all her property to a search if her probation officer has any reasonable suspicions she's violating the terms of her supervised release.
1/19/23 Update: A new court filing by the U.S. government opposing Holmes’ motion for release pending appeal shows that Holmes bought a one-way ticket to Mexico set to leave weeks after her fraud conviction. Holmes was sentenced last November to over 11 years in prison & has appealed that decision. In response to her motion for release, prosecutors said in their filing Thursday that she purchased an airline ticket to Mexico scheduled to leave shortly after being convicted last January with no scheduled return. Prosecutors said in their filing that "the government became aware on January 23, 2022" that Holmes had booked a flight to Mexico to depart on January 26, 2022, without a scheduled return trip which was only cancelled after the government raised the unauthorized flight with the defense. "The government anticipates Defendant will note in reply that she did not in fact leave the country as scheduled – but it is difficult to know with certainty what Defendant would have done had the government not intervened," the filing states. The government adds that Holmes failed to meet the burden of proving she was not a flight risk.
1/23/23 Update: In a filing Monday, lawyers for Holmes slammed the claim as "baseless," saying prosecutors "recklessly & incorrectly accuse Ms. Holmes & her partner of attempted flight 7 present incomplete 7&provably inaccurate statements of fact in support of that accusation." Holmes' attorneys also asked the judge to strike the claim from the record, saying, "[T]he entirety of those sentences are inextricably based on & incorporate factual misrepresentations." Last week, prosecutors said Holmes had booked a one-way flight to Mexico for January 26, 2022, in an attempt to flee the country after her conviction three weeks earlier. They also argued that she shows "no remorse to victims" as they urged the judge not to grant Holmes' request to remain free while she appeals her conviction, saying, "The incentive to flee has never been higher & [Holmes] has the means to act on that incentive." In the defense's response Monday, they said Holmes hoped to be acquitted & to subsequently attend a wedding of close friends in Mexico in late January, so her partner, Billy Evans, booked flights for them in December 2021, which predated Holmes' conviction. After receiving a guilty verdict, Holmes no longer planned to attend the wedding, her attorneys said in the filing. Holmes' defense also pushed back on prosecutors' claim that, for more than a year, she has lived on an estate that costs $13K per month to maintain. In their filing Monday, they said Holmes hasn't lived there since October & also asked for that claim to be stricken from the record.
2/4/23 Update: Also scheduled on 3/17/23 are motion hearing, motion to strike & restitution hearings. 2/27/23 Update: A court filing last week has revealed that Holmes is now a mother of two & she's seeking to delay her looming incarceration. She gave birth either in December, 2022 or January, 2023. Holmes was sentenced to over 11 years in prison & is due to begin her sentence on 4/27/23, but she & her legal team want to postpone that until her appeal process is finished. 3/4/23 Update: Motions hearing on 3/17/23 has changed to: for release pending appeal, motion to strike & restitution hearing.
3/7/23 Update: Holmes is fighting a demand to pay nearly $900 million in restitution to investors in her failed company. In a recent court filing, Holmes hit back at a motion from prosecutors that she repay the full $878 million that investors put up to back her medical testing startup, which imploded when her claims about the technology were revealed as false. Holmes' attorneys argue that there is no proof that the investors put their money into Theranos as a result of her fraudulent claims, or that her crimes were responsible for the company's collapse. The record thus contains little to no information regarding the circumstances of many investors' decisions to invest, including what information they considered, relied on, or found important. The defense motion also points out that US District Judge Edward Davila previously ruled that prosecutors had not established that Theranos collapsed because of Holmes' criminal conduct. 'Together, these findings—which the government does not contest in its restitution submission—preclude attributing the entire decline in Theranos' value to the offense conduct,' the motion argues. Her attorneys have previously argued that she has essentially no assets, though in court filings they have said she is pursuing several patents. Any restitution order could apply to Holmes' future assets & income, meaning that she could face garnishment if she returns to work after she completes her prison sentence.
*Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani (53/now 57) (CFO & President of Theranos) – Trial began on 3/22/22 & ended on 7/7/22 with a guilty verdict on all 12 counts. Sentenced on 12/7/22 to 155 months (12 years & 11 months) to prison. Must surrender on 3/15/23 by 2pm. 3/16/23: Received a reprieve-did not have to surrender because of the appeal.
 
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