In a court docket submitting Thursday, the authorized staff for Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO of Theranos, made a case to get the founder out of serving a prolonged jail sentence for defrauding buyers.
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“We acknowledge that this will likely appear a tall order given the general public notion of this case,” the submitting mentioned, per Bloomberg.
It requested for her to serve 18 months confined in her house.
As well as, 130 individuals linked to the founder, together with former Theranos buyers and household and associates, submitted letters in her assist. The submitting argued the “actual” Holmes has been obscured by “media vitriol.”
Holmes based Theranos in 2003 and claimed the corporate had a revolutionary take a look at that would use a a lot smaller quantity of blood to check for a wider vary of diseases, together with most cancers, and raised $700 million for the corporate. She was extensively profiled in Fortune in 2014, which boosted her profile enormously.
Her firm at the moment was valued at nearly $9 billion.
Associated: The Profession Rise and Fall of Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes
Then, in 2015 and 2016, reviews from the Wall Avenue Journal uncovered that the expertise essentially didn’t work. Holmes stepped down as CEO in 2018.
Holmes was convicted of 4 fraud-related counts in January The story partially was recounted in Hulu’s “The Dropout” the place Amanda Seyfried received an Emmy for enjoying the founder.
Within the submitting Thursday, because the outlet famous, Holmes mentioned once more her claims that she was being emotionally and bodily abused by enterprise accomplice Sunny Balwani. He was convicted in a distinct trial in July of 12 counts of fraud.
Holmes’ staff additionally mentioned, per Bloomberg, that she’s turn into a sexual violence disaster counselor.
The submitting is one thing of a hail mary. A number of the counts of fraud she was convicted for embrace minimal sentences of 9 years, per the outlet. The prosecution nonetheless has to present the choose, U.S. District Choose Edward Davila, suggestions for a jail sentence.
This week, Holmes’ staff did not get a brand new trial after claiming a key witness may need been pressured by the prosecution.