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Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and former CEO of the Palo Alto blood-testing startup Theranos, may have her prison sentence reduced by nearly two years, according to records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison after being found guilty on charges of fraud and conspiracy in January 2022. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, her new release date is Dec. 29, 2032.
The reduction is for good conduct, which Holmes has yet to show; in that sense, the new release date is an incentive rather than a guarantee, according to a legal analyst interviewed by NBC Bay Area.
In addition to incarceration, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila also ordered Holmes at her sentencing to spend three years under supervised release once her prison term is complete.
Holmes is currently serving her sentence at Federal Prison Camp, Bryan, a minimum-security prison for female offenders located 100 miles north of Houston.
Theranos was founded by Holmes after she dropped out of Stanford University in 2003. The company claimed to have invented a new blood-testing method that could detect disease from just a pinprick. Later, the company’s claims about its technology were found to be fraudulent by federal authorities. In 2018, the company was shut down.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on May 16 denied a motion by Holmes to stay out of prison while she appeals her conviction.
I feel sorry for her progeny. What a mother!
“The reduction is for good conduct, which Holmes has yet to show; in that sense, the new release date is an incentive rather than a guarantee, according to a legal analyst interviewed by NBC Bay Area.”
Prepare for more pr blitzes showing just how good she is, how she’s so poor she can’t afford $250 a MONTH in restitution and how she’s the only mother whose anchor babies suffer from her absence ….
Very sad situation all around — for Ms. Holmes, for her children, for those she swindled. It is also very sad for other mothers who are not so famous and who also miss their children.
> “”The reduction is for good conduct, which Holmes has yet to show; in that sense, the new release date is an incentive rather than a guarantee, according to a legal analyst interviewed by NBC Bay Area.”
In many instances, it has become customary to release inmates prior to the full completion of their sentences.
Leslie Van Houten was released on Tuesday despite being sentenced to life in prison despite her active participation in the Manson-related murders 53 years ago. This is WRONG.
Nine years is still a long time to lose from your child’s (children’s?) life, but I only feel sorry for the child, and her victims, not for her. So hard to understand the sense of entitlement that must motivate taking advantage of one’s fellow man; such a misuse of her gifts! One hopes that she has learned the lessons she obviously needed to learn!
No sympathy here for Ms. Holmes or her children. Inmates serving time at minimum security facilities for white collar crimes have it far easier than those serving time in more secure prisons.
I feel sorry for her children and her victims. I somewhat feel sorry for her. I think Balwani took control of her and her company and was calling the shots all along. White collar fraud is a wealthy man’s game. Society knows this.
She wanted you to think he had control over her, hence her poor poor pitiful me defense claim that he used and abused her as a mere woman. Her PR firm had her volunteer at an abused woman charity, something she hadn’t cared about until her trial.
Her calculated use of the Abused Women / Mommy defenses defenses set real women entrepreneurs back tremendously but her pr efforts are worthy of years of case studies of media manipulation.
Elizabeth Holmes is a victim of sorts…seduced by greed, a faithless lover, and her brilliant IQ.
A mother’s place is with her children and Ms. Holme’s sentence should be reduced to lesser time providing she make full monetary restitution to all of her investors who were victims as well (of greed).
She hasn’t yet demonstrated good behavior, but a sentence reduction seems to be in the works. Knowing how manipulative she is, I can believe that she has dazzled the people who will have the role determining how many years she will have to stay behind bars. Another thing she has yet to prove in prison is BAD behavior that could complel a judge to make her stay there every day of her sentence. You can only bat your lashes so much in prison with other felons, and after the first week she will find a “Bubba” to protect her. On her own, she’s clueless about reality. She operates best with a willing audience. She won’t find that in prison.
Another manipulator just won her freedom after committing heinous murders, including savage stabbings and sticking a fork of one of her victims’ abdomen. I think her first post-prison visitors will be Squeaky Fromme. Much has been said in the past week, about how Van Houten doesn’t even know what a debit card or a smartphone is. But she still knows how to use a fork and knife.
The families of the victims always give impact statements everytime on of these ghouls comes up for parole. I have to wonder what went wrong this time. It’s like releasing a bear back into the wild. Of couse she showed “good behavior” in prison. But she has been out of society for over 50 years. Prison life isn’t real life. You don’t just waltz out of prison, no matter how much “remorse” you can drum up for a parole hearing, and act like your crime didn’t exist, and expect to be welcomed back into polite society. She is a savage.
She is a savage. The reason most Americans believe in the death penalty. What went “wrong” this time? She’s been approved for parole 5 times since 2016. Brown and Newsom fought it. Newsom has the power to continue to fight but he doesn’t think it will do any good, so he threw in the towel.
I hope she violates her parole and ends up back in prison where she belongs. Age and gender aside, she’ll always be a threat to society.
My personal take on this is that she is showing the arrogance that many of her age display when it comes to being responsible, showing compassion and manners, sympathy and understanding. She is part of the “me first” generation that society has been producing in many years. This is particularly true of those children who are bright and think they deserve more as a result. They are lacking in people skills and appear selfish. This is not always their fault as that has been ingrained in them from a very young age.
I truly hope that her children can be raised with more empathy than their mother. I hope the same for the next generation across the board.
Also indifference to the consequences of her lies about the efficacy and dangers of her tests. When confronted by a Walgreen’s clerk who described the dangers and trauma of getting the wrong test results, Holmes famously replied, “They don’t send pretty people like me to jail.”
No remorse. No empathy. And to prove she names her daughter “Invicta” — invincible in Latin — as if she’d be able to rise about all those pesky consequences of her actions.
Blame the idealistic progressives for lax attitudes towards crime and punishment.
What really sucks my nards is that AFTER prison, felons like Holmes and Van Houten get to walk out free as a bird, having returned nothing to their victims or their families. They get 3 hots and a cot for years, living in a coccoon where nothing can touch them. Safe and sound. Their victims get no reparations. Who is going to be the first Fox head to get an “exclusive” interview?
In addition to defrauding investors, if Holme’s pseudo-invention led to any related deaths, her sentencing should be considerably longer.
As for the Manson follower (Van Houton),
I am surprised that Gov. Newsom did not raise an objection to her release.
Perhaps the governor and parole board feel than she is fully rehabilitated and ready to re-enter society.
Ms. Holmes was a saavy businesswoman who let things get out of hand.
Andrea Collins displays sad ignorance about federal sentencing guidelines.
@Helen, I would challenge anyone who had a part in granting Van Houten’s parole to invite her to stay with them, in their house, as a guest.
Methinks each of those people would hide everything sharp before she arrives.
And sleep with one eye open.
Ms. Van Houton is also eligible for a presidential pardon.
Bill Clinton pardoned Patty Hearst who was convicted for her participation in the SLA and Jimmy Carter pardoned Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) who was convicted for a sex crime involving a minor. Hearst and Yarrow also received early releases from prison.
The Democrats tend to be more lax in these matters which might explain why Governor Newsom declined to object to the release of Ms. Van Houton.
Let’s not forget that the Enron guys got early release and the the GOP has never been great at prosecuting those white collar criminals. In fact they’ve repeatedly tried to weaken and close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau formed to protect us against ripoffs like the massive ones by the mortgage industry, to weaken and repeal consumer protection laws, etc.
You may remember the expression “too big to jail” re why the government didn’t charge / jail any bankers while doling out their massive financial bailouts to the financial institutions that were “too big to fail.”
That’s not to say the Democrats’ are right on their stances ob crime and punishment. In fact this week the San Fransisco Chronicle actually published an editorial sayings the Democrats’ stances on crime and house were making the CA Republicans “relevant” again.
“California Democrats are taking absurd positions on crime and housing — making Republicans somehow relevant again”
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/democrats-california-crime-human-trafficking-18195843.php
Some balance and common sense would be special. I’m tired of reading stories about dangerous stalkers with the DAs justifying light sentences, saying “Oh, but he only stalked one woman for decades. We could have done more if he’d stalked or injured MORE women.” I’ve tired of reading about executives granting themselves huge bonuses immediately before declaring bankruptcy and denying workers their tiny severance packages.
Leslie Van Houten earned both her BA and MA while incarcerated in addition to finding faith in God and serving as a mentor to younger inmates.
Perhaps these considerations accounted for her release after 53 years of imprisonment. It’s hard to say.
Many life imprisonment terms allow for eventual release under certain circumstances like good behavior.
Will Scott Peterson be next in line?
Favorite line in this story: “The reduction is for good conduct, which Holmes has yet to show . . .” Talk about an understatement!