Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes begins 11-year sentence in Texas prison | World news
Engineering major Elizabeth Holmes began serving her 11-year sentence for defrauding investors in a Texas prison on Tuesday.
The 39-year-old was seen arriving at the minimum federal prison for female inmates in Bryan, Texas near Houston.
He was ordered to begin serving prison time at the facility on Tuesday after the court denied his latest request to remain free while he appeals his fraud conviction.
“We can confirm Elizabeth Holmes has arrived at the Federal Prison Camp Bryan … and is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons,” the command said in a brief statement.
Holmes became a Silicon Valley star when he said his startup was perfecting an easy-to-use test kit that could perform a wide range of medical tests with just a few blood draws.
As the founder of Theranos, Holmes became a tech tycoon, winning investments from top politicians and some of the world’s richest people, including media baron Rupert Murdoch, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and the Walgreens pharmacy chain.
Theranos also became famous for the prominent figures who sat on its board of directors, including former US diplomats Henry Kissinger, George Shultz and Jim Mattis.
But Stanford University’s fortunes pulled out after a Wall Street Journal investigation into the usefulness of the tests.
Holmes had a baby shortly before his trial and has had a second since his conviction.
In addition to his prison sentence, he and former Theranos CEO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were ordered to pay $452 million to biked investors.
Balwani was sentenced to almost 13 years and is currently serving his time in a federal prison in California.
A federal judge recommended that Holmes serve her sentence at an all-female minimum security facility in Bryan, which is not far from where she grew up in Houston.
According to The Wall Street Journal, many of Bryan’s inmates were convicted of white-collar crimes, minor drug offenses, and harboring illegal immigrants.
Holmes can live in a cell with as many as three other prisoners.
