Though Judge Edward Davila ruled that Holmes is not a danger to the community or likely to flee, he wrote that the court was “unable to find that she has raised a ‘substantial question of law or fact’ that if ‘determined favorably to [her] on appeal’” is likely to result in a reversal or new trial.
Holmes was once a wunderkind of Silicon Valley — the young, female founder of a promising start-up that pledged to make health care more affordable and less painful for the masses. Theranos, which Holmes founded while still a student at Stanford University, created a blood-testing device that was purported to have the capability to run a multitude of tests from just a few drops of blood.
The company raised hundreds of millions of dollars from prominent U.S. statesmen and Silicon Valley investors, and Holmes became a picture of success for young founders. The saga of Theranos has now been captured in a best-selling book, a Hulu series and an HBO documentary.
Holmes’s image and the company came crashing down in 2015 when a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed the company’s technology was sputtering along — it was relying on traditional lab testing machines and typical blood draws to run many of its tests, and testing was erratic and limited.
Theranos was investigated by regulators and eventually shuttered. During Holmes’s four-month trial in late 2021, former employees and partners testified that the public declarations about the company’s technology did not reflect the chaos inside the firm.
When Holmes took the stand, she insisted that she acted in good faith and denied that she intended to mislead anyone.
But a jury found her guilty on four counts of misleading investors. Ten months later, she was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison and ordered to turn herself in on April 27.
Holmes then asked the judge to allow her to remain free during the appeal process. Her lawyers argued in court filings that she is not a flight risk or a danger to the community.
“She has received financial and other support from family and friends, and she continues to work on ideas for patents, as the government notes,” lawyers wrote. “None of that is criminal or poses a danger to the community.”
Her lawyers also noted that Holmes has two young children. She was pregnant at her sentencing in November and had her first child in 2021.
But the government signaled that Holmes was a possible flight risk, referencing a flight to Mexico her partner had booked for the pair to attend a wedding just weeks after her verdict came in. Her defense said that the ticket was booked before she was found guilty and that it was later canceled.
“Booking international travel plans for a criminal defendant in anticipation of a complete defense victory is a bold move, and the failure to promptly cancel those plans after a guilty verdict is a perilously careless oversight,” Davila wrote in his latest ruling. “However, after reviewing the counsels’ contemporary communications and immediate subsequent remediation, the Court accepts Ms. Holmes’s representation that the oneway flight ticket — while ill-advised — was not an attempt to flee the country.”
Holmes’s former romantic and business partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, was convicted in a separate trial of 12 counts of misleading investors and patients. He was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison in December.
The same judge also denied Balwani’s request to remain out of prison during his appeal, and the former Theranos executive is scheduled to report to prison on April 20.
